Terms of Service

• "SimNode" — our browser-based factory design and discrete-event simulation platform, including its editor, simulation engine, optimizer, reporting, code-generation and related features.
• "Customer Content" — the process models, projects, parameters, data files, results and any other material you create in or upload to the Services.
• "Output" — anything the Services generate from Customer Content, including simulation results, metrics, recommendations, reports, exports and generated robot or control code.
• "Plan" — the subscription tier (free or paid) that applies to your account, together with its published limits.
• "Order" — a purchase of a Plan through our checkout, or a separate written agreement referencing these Terms.

HIRVA Consultancy Inc. is a corporation incorporated in Ontario, Canada. Contact: info@hirva.ca · Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ontario, Canada. These Terms cover the Services only; consulting and professional-services engagements are governed by separate written agreements, and nothing in the Services creates such an engagement (see Section 12).

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract.
• The Services are business tools intended for professional use, not for consumers or household purposes.
• You may not use the Services if doing so is prohibited by law, or if you or your organization are subject to sanctions administered by Canada, the United States, or other applicable authorities.

• Registration requires an accurate email address. Keep your account details current.
• Two-factor authentication is mandatory. You must enrol an authenticator when prompted, and you are responsible for safeguarding your authenticator and your one-time backup codes. If you lose both, recovery may require identity verification and administrative action, and we cannot guarantee access in the meantime.
• Sign-in sessions end when you close your browser; a fresh sign-in (including a second factor) is required afterwards. Do not attempt to circumvent this.
• Each account is personal to one named individual. Sharing credentials, pooling an account across a team, or reselling access is prohibited. We may employ technical measures (including device binding) to enforce single-user use. For teams, contact us about multi-seat or enterprise arrangements.
• You are responsible for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly at info@hirva.ca of any suspected unauthorised access.
• We may suspend an account that shows signs of compromise, credential sharing, or automated abuse while we investigate.

Subject to these Terms and payment of applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to access and use the Services for your internal business purposes during your subscription. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. This is a subscription to a service, not a sale or licence of software code.

• New accounts receive a one-time trial of Pro features, currently 7 days, starting at registration. No payment card is required, and nothing is charged when it ends — the account simply reverts to the free tier.
• During a trial, every feature is available for evaluation, but downloads and exports (reports, files, images and generated code) are disabled. Taking Output off the platform requires a paid Plan.
• One trial per person and per organization. Creating additional accounts to obtain repeated trials is a breach of these Terms.
• Free-tier exports carry a SimNode watermark. Removing or obscuring the watermark other than by upgrading is prohibited.
• We may change or discontinue trial and free-tier features at any time.

• Each Plan carries published limits — including saved projects, devices per model, operations per device, simulation duration, and daily simulation allowance. Current limits are shown in the app and on the pricing page and form part of your Plan.
• Limits are enforced by our servers. Attempting to bypass them (including by manipulating client code or requests) is a material breach.
• Computationally intensive operations may consume more of the daily simulation allowance than a single run — for example, an optimization consumes allowance in proportion to the simulations it schedules. The app shows the cost where it applies.
• Plans described as 'unlimited' remain subject to a fair-use ceiling that protects the platform from automated or abusive load; no human workflow approaches it.
• If your Plan's project limit decreases (downgrade, cancellation, or trial expiry), projects beyond the new limit are not deleted — they become read-only archives you can still open and view. Restoring an archived project to an editable state uses a project slot on your then-current Plan.
• We may adjust limits prospectively; if an adjustment materially reduces a paid Plan, we will give at least 30 days' notice.

• Paid Plans are billed in advance, monthly or annually, and renew automatically until cancelled. By subscribing you authorise recurring charges to your payment method.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not receive or store card numbers.
• Prices are stated in US dollars and are exclusive of taxes. Applicable taxes — including Canadian GST/HST — are calculated and added at checkout based on your billing information, which you agree to keep accurate.
• Upgrades take effect immediately with a prorated charge or credit for the remainder of the period; downgrades and interval changes take effect as shown at the time of change.
• Price changes take effect at your next renewal, with at least 30 days' notice for paid Plans.
• If a renewal payment fails, we may retry it, notify you, and after a reasonable period suspend paid features or move the account to the free tier (archiving over-limit projects as in Section 7). You remain responsible for amounts owing.

• You may cancel at any time via the billing portal. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for; you keep paid access until then.
• Except where required by law, fees are non-refundable and periods already started are not refunded or credited. The free trial exists precisely so you can evaluate the paid features before paying.
• Genuine billing errors and duplicate charges will be corrected — email info@hirva.ca and we will put it right.

• You retain all rights in Customer Content. We claim no ownership of it.
• You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, transmit, process, back up, and display Customer Content — solely to operate, secure, and support the Services for you, and for as long as we host it for you. This includes running the simulations and generating the Output you request.
• We do not sell Customer Content, publish it, or use it to train machine-learning models.
• You are responsible for Customer Content: that you have the rights to it, and that it does not violate law or third-party rights (including someone else's confidential information uploaded without authority).
• Each project is subject to a per-project storage size limit (currently 4 MB), which comfortably fits the largest supported models.
• You can export your projects as files at any time on a paid Plan. Keep your own copies of anything critical — see Section 20 for what happens at termination.

Models are private by default. Our personnel can see project metadata (name, size, device counts, timestamps) for operations and support, but cannot open your model unless one of the following applies:

• Consent — you share a specific project using 'Share with HIRVA support'. Sharing is per-project and revocable at any time; each support view is recorded and visible on your own account activity.
• Security and integrity — limited access strictly necessary to investigate abuse, fraud, or a security incident affecting the Services.
• Legal — where required by law or a binding order, in which case we will notify you unless legally prohibited.
• Incidental — automated processing (backups, integrity checks) that does not involve a person reading your model.

Read this section carefully. It allocates engineering responsibility, and it is a condition of using the Services.

• SimNode is a modelling tool. Output is an estimate derived entirely from the inputs, assumptions, distributions and parameters YOU supply. It is a model of a factory, not the factory.
• Output — including results, bottleneck analyses, optimization suggestions, cost and ROI figures, AI-generated recommendations and reports — is decision-support information only. It is not a professional engineering opinion, a stamped or sealed engineering document, a safety assessment, or advice of any kind.
• References to HIRVA's team or credentials (including 'P.Eng-led') describe who builds the software. Your use of the Services does not create a professional engineer–client relationship, and no licensed professional reviews your models or Output unless you separately engage us in writing to do so.
• Generated robot and control code is a DRAFT and starting point. It must be reviewed, adapted, validated and commissioned by a qualified person against the actual equipment, controls, surroundings and applicable safety standards (including lockout/tagout and machine-safety norms) before any use with real machinery. Never run generated code on physical equipment without such review.
• You are solely responsible for independently verifying Output before relying on it — before committing capital, changing a production line, or operating equipment. To the maximum extent permitted by law, HIRVA has no liability for decisions made, actions taken, or losses arising from reliance on Output.

• Some features (such as the AI advisor) use third-party large-language-model providers. When you invoke them, relevant simulation context and your query are sent to the provider to generate a response; see the Privacy Policy for details.
• AI output can be wrong, incomplete, or inapplicable to your situation. It is provided as-is, forms part of 'Output' under Section 12, and requires the same human verification.
• AI features are optional; nothing is sent to an AI provider unless you use them.

You agree not to, and not to permit anyone to:

• share, resell, sublicense, rent, or provide the Services to third parties, or operate them as a bureau or on behalf of others without our written agreement;
• reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive source code, models, or algorithms of the Services, except to the extent that right cannot lawfully be excluded;
• bypass or attempt to bypass authentication, plan limits, trial or download restrictions, watermarks, rate limits, or any other technical control;
• probe, scan, or test the security of the Services without our prior written consent, or interfere with their operation, including through excessive automated load, scraping, or denial-of-service;
• use robots, scripts, or automated means to create accounts or to access the Services other than through interfaces we provide;
• upload malicious code, or content that is unlawful, infringing, or that you lack rights to;
• use the Services to develop a competing product, or copy their features, look and feel, or documentation for that purpose;
• use the Services in violation of export-control or sanctions laws, or in connection with weapons design or other prohibited end uses;
• misrepresent Output as professionally certified, stamped, or endorsed by HIRVA or any licensed engineer.

We may investigate suspected violations and may suspend or limit accounts involved, in addition to any other remedy.

We record security-relevant account activity — sign-ins and failures, two-factor events, project lifecycle actions, exports and code generation, and simulation usage, together with IP address and browser information — to protect accounts, enforce limits, detect abuse and data-exfiltration, and operate the Services. This logging is a condition of use and is described in the Privacy Policy, including retention periods. Privileged administrative actions on our side are separately recorded in a tamper-evident audit log.

The Services depend on third-party providers — currently including Stripe (payments and tax), Cloudflare (Turnstile bot protection), an AI model provider for optional AI features, and our hosting and email infrastructure. Their availability is outside our control, and their processing of personal information is described in the Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for third-party services we do not provide.

• The Services — including SimNode, the HIRVA and SimNode names and marks, the simulation engine, device and template libraries, interfaces, documentation and site content — are owned by HIRVA or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. Templates and libraries we provide are licensed for use within the Services, not for redistribution.
• If you send us feedback, suggestions, or ideas, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use them without restriction or obligation. We will not name you publicly without consent.
• If you believe content on the Services infringes your rights, notify info@hirva.ca with enough detail to assess the claim (the material, the right asserted, and your contact information). We will investigate and act appropriately, which may include removal.

We treat non-public Customer Content as your confidential information and protect it with at least reasonable care, consistent with Sections 10–11 and the Privacy Policy. You agree to treat non-public information about the Services (including security details and non-public features) as our confidential information. Neither obligation applies to information that is public through no breach, independently developed, or required to be disclosed by law (with notice where lawful).

Features identified as beta, preview, or early access are provided for evaluation, may change or be withdrawn without notice, may be less reliable than the rest of the Services, and are excluded from any service commitments. Use them at your discretion.

• These Terms apply from your first use of the Services and continue until your account is closed.
• You may stop using the Services and close your account at any time; Section 9 governs any active subscription.
• We may suspend or terminate your access for material breach of these Terms, non-payment, security risk, unlawful use, or where required by law — with notice and a chance to cure where the circumstances reasonably allow it, and immediately where they do not (for example, active abuse or a security threat).
• On termination or lapse of a paid Plan, Customer Content is handled as described in Section 7 (archiving) and the Privacy Policy (retention): archived projects remain viewable while your account exists; after account closure we may delete Customer Content following a reasonable period, and will delete it earlier on your verified request. Export anything you need first.
• We may terminate free accounts that have been inactive for an extended period, with prior notice to the account email.
• Sections that by their nature should survive termination do survive — including 10 (your ownership), 12 (responsibility for Output), 17, 18, 21–24 and 26.

THE SERVICES AND ALL OUTPUT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HIRVA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY — INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, MERCHANTABLE QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, DURABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR FIT FOR YOUR PURPOSES. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM US OR THE SERVICES CREATES ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HERE.

• To the maximum extent permitted by law, HIRVA and its directors, employees and suppliers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits or revenue, lost or corrupted data, lost production or downtime, plant or equipment damage, personal injury arising from use of Output contrary to Section 12, cost of substitute services, or business interruption — however caused and under any theory of liability, even if advised of the possibility.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, HIRVA's total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the Services in the 12 months before the first event giving rise to liability, and (b) CAD $100.
• The limits above do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law — including liability for fraud or wilful misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by our negligence — and do not limit statutory rights that apply to you mandatorily. The allocation of risk in Sections 12, 21 and 22 is a fundamental basis of the bargain; the Services would not be offered at these prices without it.

You will defend and indemnify HIRVA and its directors, employees and agents against third-party claims, and resulting damages, penalties and reasonable legal costs, to the extent arising from: (a) Customer Content; (b) your use of Output, including use of generated code with physical equipment; (c) your breach of these Terms or of law; or (d) use of your account by anyone you allowed to access it. We will notify you promptly of any such claim and may participate in the defence with our own counsel at our expense; you will not settle a claim imposing obligations on us without our consent.

• These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.
• The courts of Ontario, sitting in Toronto, have exclusive jurisdiction, and each party irrevocably attorns to them — except that either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property or confidential information, and nothing prevents claims in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction.
• Before starting formal proceedings, the parties will attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute through direct discussion for at least 30 days after written notice of it.
• Any claim must be brought within two years of the date it arose, to the extent this limitation is permitted by applicable law.
• If you use the Services from another jurisdiction whose laws grant you mandatory protections, nothing in this section deprives you of them.

• The Services evolve: we may add, change, or remove features. If a change materially reduces the core functionality of a paid Plan, we will give at least 30 days' notice, and your remedy is to cancel before the change applies (with a pro-rata refund of prepaid, unused fees for that Plan).
• We may update these Terms. For material changes we will give at least 30 days' notice by email or in-app before they take effect; other changes take effect on posting with an updated date and version. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, stop using the Services and cancel before that date.

• Entire agreement — these Terms, the Privacy Policy, and your Orders are the entire agreement about the Services and supersede prior discussions. Terms on a purchase order or similar document you send do not apply.
• Assignment — you may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or to an affiliate.
• Severability — if a provision is unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest remains in effect.
• Waiver — failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Force majeure — neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control (excluding your payment obligations).
• No third-party beneficiaries, and the parties are independent contractors.
• Notices — we may notify you at your account email or in-app; legal notices to us go to info@hirva.ca and take effect on receipt.
• Language — the parties have required these Terms to be drafted in English. Les parties ont exigé que la présente convention soit rédigée en anglais.
• Headings are for convenience; 'including' means 'including without limitation'.

Questions about these Terms: info@hirva.ca. See also the Privacy Policy, which forms part of this agreement.