Registration and Purchasing FAQ
Can I buy a boxed version of a Raw Material Software product?
No, all our software is download-only. This makes things cheaper for everyone, means we can spend more time writing software instead of carrying boxes around, and doesn't pollute the planet with piles of discarded CDs...
What do I actually get when I buy a product?
After you've purchased a product, it will be added to your list of "Registered products", and you'll be emailed an invoice.
So when I've bought something, where's the software?
The "demo" and "registered" versions are the same thing, so if you haven't already done so,
you can get the installers from our downloads page.
To turn off the demo restrictions, you can run the software, go to its "unlock" section (normally
one of the pages on the preferences dialog box), and enter your account details. This will connect
to the internet, contact our server and unlock the software for full use.
So how do I unlock the software if my computer's not got an internet connection?
It's a lot easier to unlock automatically as described above, but if your computer's not got a connection to the outside world for some reason, here's how to do the process manually:
- Choose the "manual unlock" option from the unlocking dialog
- Make a note of the "machine number" that's shown to you. This uniquely identifies the computer that it's running on.
- Log-in to our website and look at your details. For each registered product, you'll see a list of machine numbers that it's allowed to run on. Enter the number from the computer you're trying to use into one of these boxes and click the "change" button to update it.
- Just below the machine numbers, there will now be a link offering to "email you a key-file" for a particular machine number. Click on the appropriate one.
- When you receive the key-file, use a floppy disk/CD-rom/punched-card-reader, or whatever means are available, to transfer this file onto your target computer.
- Go back to the "manual unlock" options in the software, and click the button that lets you open a key-file. Choose the file you just got, and it should all unlock nicely.
My key-file doesn't work...
If you're trying to unlock manually and the software won't accept the key-file, the chances
are that you've typed the machine number wrong.
To double-check, you can open a KeyFile in a text editor, and have a look at the machine number
shown inside. Compare this with the one shown in the software's unlocking dialog.
(N.B. There's no point trying to directly edit the number inside a key-file - this won't work.
If it's wrong, you'll need to download a new file from the website).
I own the software, but it won't let me re-register it for another computer...
To stop people buying one copy and installing it on all of their friends' machines, there are
limits on how often you can register it for use on a new machine - our webserver will stop co-operating
if it sees something that it finds suspicious.
It's unlikely you'll encounter this if you're using it
legitimately, but if you do, email us to explain, and we can reset
it manually for you.
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