Support Policy

About Our Support Policy

Technical Support is intended to provide our customers with help with the use of the supported versions of our software. The supported version of each program is the currently distributed version as noted on the Program Downloads page. You must be a current subscriber of Maintenance+ to receive Technical Support over email. Please see the Maintenance+ page for details on this subscription.

Note on Confidentiality: It is often necessary for customers to send their models to us in order to receive support. Be assured that Rocscience does not share customer models without permission.

Note on Turnaround Time: At Rocscience we strive to get a response to you within 24 hours. However, this is not a guarantee as turnaround time does depend on model complexity, query complexity, and overall technical support load.

Technical Support Coverage

What’s Covered Under Technical Support

• Installation
• Questions pertaining to the use of the program, including:
  • Program features.
    • Example: Can program X be used to model Y?
  • Modeling questions specific to the program.
    • Example: Which option should I use to model a specific type of support / GW boundary / boundary condition / etc. in X?
    • Example: Is what I have modeled in X sufficient to capture Y phenomenon?
      
  • Program capabilities / functionality.
    • Example: How can X be used to model Y?
    • Example: Can I get Y result out of X?
      

What’s Not Covered Under Technical Support

Geotechnical analysis requires detailed knowledge of a given project and its geometry, material properties, site history, etc. Technical Support can help you solve problems you may face in the creation or analysis of a model, but it cannot be used to help you make critical design-related decisions. Below are examples of items that are outside the scope of Technical Support:

• Questions regarding the use of third-party software.
• Explanations on the principles underlying geotechnical analysis, design, and engineering.
• Explanations on the principles underlying finite element analysis.
  • We can't comment on the suitability of a mesh or how to determine the appropriate mesh for your particular project.
• Project-specific modeling.
  • We can't modify your model based on diagrams / schematics that you send us.
  • We can't modify a file to represent a described construction sequence.
  • We can't "approve" your model or its components.
• Determination of material properties or other input parameters.
  • We can't suggest or recommend material properties or constitutive models for your model based on information you send us.
  • We can't approve a material model choice for your project.
• Results interpretation.
  • We can't tell you if, for example, 1.24 is a realistic factor of safety for your Slide2 model. We can check if the program is functioning as expected. Program results may not be as expected if there are issues with the input data, so it is not possible for us to comment on whether or not a particular result is reasonable or realistic.

For queries that fall outside the scope of our Technical Support, we offer Rocscience Expert Modeling as part of our training programs.

Appending a Model to Your Technical Support Query

If you have an active Maintenance+ subscription

If you send us a model and you have an active Maintenance+ subscription, we may send a revised model back, depending on the question. Any model(s) we send back will conform to our technical support policy.

If you do NOT have Maintenance+

Without Maintenance+, technical support is available ONLY through the online help resources. If you send us a file with a bug report, we will investigate and let you know the result.

Phone Technical Support

Technical support over the phone is intended to be for questions pertaining to program features or capabilities, or to supplement a response previously provided via email. Phone technical support is not meant to be a primary method of technical support.

Technical Support for Academic Bundle

Masters/PhD students submitting technical support questions must include, in their email, comments from their supervisor. The supervisor must also be cc'd on the support email. To expedite support, please also include your technical support information. Emails without this information will receive a response requesting it. The tech support info can be accessed by selecting Help > Technical Support in the program you’re using. Copy the information in the Tech Support dialog, and paste it into your email.

Please keep in mind that commercial customers with an active Maintenance+ subscription have priority with regards to technical support. As such, we cannot guarantee a response within a specific time-frame.

Software Security Policy

The security of the environment in which you install and activate your Rocscience software is your responsibility.

Rocscience’s desktop applications (listed below) will be installed on your computer/network:

RS3, RS2, SLIDE2, SLIDE3, SETTLE3, DIPS, ROCFALL, ROCFALL3, SWEDGE, ROCPLANE, RSPILE, ROCSUPPORT, ROCDATA, ROCTOPPLE, UNWEDGE, EX3, CPILLAR, ROCSLOPE

The above applications will not communicate with Rocscience’s server except in the following situations:

1. During the online activation of your license(s)
2. During an online check for program updates

Activating your license

The Rocscience Software Activation utility (RocActivate) will need to communicate with Rocscience’s server in order to activate a given license. The following information is shared with Rocscience’s server when completing a license activation:

• The name and local IP address of the device on which you are activating the license.
• Certain hardware characteristics of the device on which you are activating the license (ex. CPU, MAC address). These bits are required by the Sentinel licensing system and are collected in the form of CRC values only and transmitted with encryption.

After completing the Online license activation, your devices will no longer need to communicate with Rocscience’s server (or any other external resources).

You may also refer to the Manual (offline) activation method to eliminate any risks you think may result from the online activation, if preferred. With this method, you will share a fingerprint file from the device you wish to activate the license on with our licensing team, who will use the file to activate the license on our end. The fingerprint file will contain the same info mentioned above and our team will send you the activation file once the activation is completed.

Checking for updates

The Rocscience programs installed on your end will need to communicate with Rocscience’s server to check for program updates every time a program is launched. When checking for updates, the program will share your program’s name and its version number with Rocscience’s server. No other information will be shared. Note that you can turn off the automatic check for updates feature after you have activated your license by opening your program, going to Help > Product Updates, and de-selecting “Check for Updates Automatically”.

Other than the two cases outlined above, there is no communication between your computer/network and Rocscience’s server and/or any other external resources.

If you have any questions, please contact us at software@rocscience.com