Legal · Draft

STATIX — Engineering Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

DRAFT — NOT YET LEGALLY REVIEWED. This document is a professional drafting intended to be reviewed, amended and approved by a qualified attorney admitted in the Republic of South Africa (and, where the Software is sold into other jurisdictions, by suitably qualified local counsel) before it is published or relied upon. It does not constitute legal advice. Bracketed items in [square brackets] must be completed before publication.

Product: STATIX structural-engineering software ("the Software") Licensor / Author: the STATIX design team, trading as [legal entity / sole proprietor name], South Africa ("we", "us", "the Licensor") Contact: [legal@statix.app] · [postal / registered address] Document version: Draft 0.1 Effective date: [to be set on publication]

1. Read this first

STATIX is a design aid. It is a tool that performs structural analysis, member and connection design checks, and produces calculation reports. It is not a substitute for the skill, training, judgement, supervision and legal responsibility of a competent, registered professional engineer.

Every result produced by STATIX — without exception — must be independently reviewed, checked and verified by a competent professional engineer who is registered with the appropriate statutory body (in South Africa, the Engineering Council of South Africa, "ECSA"), or with the equivalent regulator in the jurisdiction of the project, before it is used for any design, construction, fabrication, procurement, costing, certification or other real-world purpose.

If you are not such a registered person, or you are not working under the direct responsible supervision of such a person, you must not use STATIX output for any purpose other than learning and evaluation.

By installing, accessing or using the Software you confirm that you have read, understood and accepted this disclaimer.

2. The engineer remains responsible

2.1 The professional engineer who applies, relies on, signs, seals or otherwise takes responsibility for any output of the Software remains solely and fully responsible for that work, in accordance with the terms of their professional registration, their professional duty of care, their professional indemnity arrangements, and all applicable law and codes of professional conduct (including, in South Africa, the Engineering Profession Act 46 of 2000 and the ECSA Code of Conduct).

2.2 Use of the Software does not transfer, share, dilute or discharge any part of that professional responsibility to the Licensor or to the Software. The responsibility for the appropriateness of the inputs, the suitability of the analysis model, the selection of load cases and combinations, the choice of design code and parameters, the interpretation of results and the fitness of the final design for its intended purpose rests entirely with the responsible engineer.

2.3 The Software is a calculation instrument in the hands of that engineer, in the same way that a calculator, a spreadsheet or a published design chart is a tool. The tool does not exercise engineering judgement; the engineer does.

3. No warranty of accuracy, correctness or fitness

3.1 The Software is provided "as is" and "as available", with all faults and without warranty of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

3.2 Without limiting clause 3.1, we do not warrant or represent that:

• the Software is free of errors, defects, bugs or omissions;
• any result, calculation, capacity, utilisation, stress, deflection, mode, buckling load, reinforcement, connection check or report produced by the Software is accurate, correct, complete or conservative;
• the Software is fit for any particular purpose, project or design;
• the Software complies with, or correctly implements, any particular code, standard, regulation or by-law;
• the analysis or design methods implemented are appropriate for your structure, your loads, your materials or your site conditions;
• operation of the Software will be uninterrupted, secure or available; or
• any defect will be corrected.

3.3 To the extent that any warranty, condition or term is implied by law and cannot lawfully be excluded, our liability for breach of it is limited, at our option, to the re-supply of the Software or the cost of re-supplying it.

3.4 Statutory consumer rights. Nothing in this disclaimer excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy that you have under the South African Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 ("CPA"), or under any other applicable consumer-protection law, to the extent that such guarantee, right or remedy cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. Where the law permits a supplier to limit the effect of such a right, our liability is limited in the manner described in this disclaimer.

4. The numerical engines — honest scope and known limits

We believe in showing our working rather than asking you to take our numbers on faith. The Software includes a built-in validation suite that re-runs its own engine functions against closed-form theory and published worked examples, on your machine, against the exact build you are running. You are strongly encouraged to run and review that validation report, and to perform your own independent verification, before relying on any result.

You must nevertheless understand the following honest limitations:

4.1 Connection design (CBFEM). The component-based finite-element ("CBFEM") connection capacity is still being calibrated against published code results (including EN 1993-1-8 and related standards) and is under continuing development. Connection results, capacities and utilisations are provisional and must be checked against first-principles hand calculations and the governing code by the responsible engineer. Descriptions of the Software as using component-based finite-element (CBFEM) analysis, or as comparable to other products, describe capability ambition and architecture, not certified equivalence of results.

4.2 Whole-frame and shell finite-element analysis. The 3D shell / surface finite-element analysis (slabs, plates, walls) is an early version. Finite-element results are approximations that depend on mesh density, element formulation, boundary conditions and modelling assumptions. Peak values near supports, edges, re-entrant corners and point loads may be under- or over-estimated; the validation pack documents wider tolerances for some boundary cases honestly rather than hiding them. Mesh-convergence and sensitivity studies remain the engineer's responsibility.

4.3 Design-code implementation. The Software references and implements clauses from various design codes and standards (for example SANS 10160, SANS 10162, SANS 10100, EN 1990–1999, AISC 360, CSA S16, AS 4100 and others). Codes and standards are amended, corrected and superseded from time to time. We do not guarantee that the version, edition, amendment or national annex implemented in the Software is the current, correct or applicable one for your project. The responsible engineer must confirm that the correct code edition, amendments, national annexes and partial factors have been applied, and must consult the official published standard. The Software is not a copy of, and does not replace, any standard; the official standards remain the controlling documents.

4.4 Material, section and product data. Built-in section libraries, material properties, bolt tables, mesh references, unit rates and similar data are provided for convenience and may contain errors or may not match the products actually available to you. Verify all such data against manufacturers' and suppliers' current published information.

4.5 Imported and exchanged models. When the Software imports, exports or exchanges data with other programs or industry-standard formats (for example .sumo, SAF, IFC, DSTV, SDNF, .std, .e2k, DXF, CSV), data may be lost, re-interpreted or mapped imperfectly between differing data models and conventions. Always verify that an imported or exported model faithfully represents the intended structure, geometry, sections, supports, releases, loads and results.

4.6 Offline operation. The Software is designed to run offline in a browser. This means we cannot monitor, patch or hot-fix the specific copy you are running. You are responsible for ensuring you are using a current, unmodified build.

5. Your responsibilities as a user

You agree that you will:

• only rely on the Software within your competence and registration;
• treat all output as preliminary until independently verified;
• check every result against first principles, hand calculation, the governing code and sound engineering judgement;
• confirm the correct code edition, national annex and partial/safety factors;
• perform appropriate sensitivity, convergence and robustness checks;
• not use the Software, or its output, for any safety-critical decision without competent professional review and sign-off;
• keep adequate records and a QA trail of your verification; and
• maintain appropriate professional indemnity cover for your engineering work.

6. Limitation of liability

6.1 Exclusion of indirect and consequential loss. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we (and our author, employees, contractors, licensors, suppliers and sub-processors) will not be liable to you or to any third party for any indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive or consequential loss or damage of any kind, including but not limited to: loss of profit, revenue, business, anticipated savings, goodwill or reputation; loss, corruption or inaccuracy of data, models or reports; business interruption; cost of substitute software or services; or any loss arising from reliance on any output of the Software — even if we have been advised of, or could reasonably have foreseen, the possibility of such loss.

6.2 In particular, and without limiting the above, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature arising from or in connection with: structural failure, collapse, defect, deformation, non-performance or non-compliance; construction, fabrication, procurement or costing decisions; rework, delay or remediation; injury to persons or damage to property; or any regulatory, contractual or professional consequence — that is attributable, in whole or in part, to the use of, or reliance on, the Software or its output, where that output was not independently verified by a competent registered engineer as required by this disclaimer.

6.3 Aggregate cap. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Software and its use — whether in contract, delict (tort), under statute, for breach of warranty, or on any other basis — is limited to the total amount of licence fees actually paid by you to us for the Software in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. Where the Software was supplied to you free of charge (including any free, trial, evaluation or "Free Viewer" tier), our total aggregate liability is limited to [ZAR 1,000 / one thousand Rand] or the maximum amount permitted by law, whichever is lower.

6.4 Things we do not exclude. Nothing in this disclaimer excludes or limits our liability to the extent that it cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including (where and to the extent applicable) liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any liability that may not be excluded under the CPA or other applicable consumer-protection law.

6.5 Allocation of risk. You acknowledge that the fees charged for the Software reflect the allocation of risk set out in this disclaimer, that this allocation is a reasonable and essential basis of the bargain between us, and that we would not make the Software available on these terms without these limitations.

7. Indemnity

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) brought by any third party to the extent it arises out of your use of the Software or its output in breach of this disclaimer or of the licence terms, including any use of unverified output for a real-world design, construction or certification purpose.

8. Relationship to other documents

This disclaimer forms part of, and must be read together with, the STATIX End-User Licence Agreement (EULA) and Terms of Service. In the event of a conflict on matters of warranty, liability or engineering responsibility, the more protective limitation in favour of the Licensor applies, to the extent permitted by law. Acceptance of this disclaimer is a condition of being granted a licence to use the Software.

9. Governing law

This disclaimer is governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have in your own country of residence.

© [2026] STATIX design team. All rights reserved. STATIX is a trademark of the Licensor. Any third-party product names are referenced for context only and belong to their respective owners.

Reminder: this is a DRAFT for attorney review.