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As you will hopefully now know, CIBSE members are able to download PDF versions of selected CIBSE Guides from the members’ area of our website. Last year, the 2005 edition of Guide K: Electricity in ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½s was made available online and the 2006 edition of Guide A: Environmental design is now also available.

CIBSE has introduced a PDF protection system for both Guides. The aim of this is to restrict the use of these documents, as far as possible, to CIBSE members and to prevent them being copied or forwarded should an unauthorised user gain access to them.

What does this mean for CIBSE members?

The online Guides are now in the form of ‘sealed’ PDFs (SPDFs). To view them, members will have to go through a quick licence confirmation process (all members who have paid their subscription have been automatically pre-issued with a licence). You will have to download a plug-in (called the ‘unsealer’) and then enter your email address and membership number when opening the PDF for the first time.

This will be a one-off procedure and as long as you remain a member of CIBSE you will be automatically logged in when you come to open any sealed files in future.

We are aware that your company network may not allow you to download plug-ins, and if this is the case then please email websupport@cibse.org

The Guide file will effectively be locked to the machine on which it is downloaded, but you will not have to be online to view it and can acquire additional licences at no cost. Therefore if you have other computers from which you want to view the Guides (eg a laptop or your home computer) and need an additional licence, please email websupport@cibse.org (please note that you will need to supply an additional email address to achieve this).

Why are we sealing our Guides?

CIBSE is seeking to ensure that the benefits of membership which you receive as part of your subscription are kept exclusively for members. The free Guides are a key benefit of your membership and sealing the Guides ensures that this remains a true benefit.

In addition to this the system will, in the future, allow us to improve our service to you. The same system will be used to provide you with increased flexibility as it will mean that members and non-members can purchase CIBSE publications electronically online, allowing instant access to all CIBSE knowledge and information.

We would stress once again that acquiring a licence is a simple, one off process, but we do have support mechanisms in place should you have any difficulties (see the email address below).

How to open your ‘sealed’ Guides

To open the ‘sealed’ PDF of your free Guides for the first time, you will need to follow this three-step process. Please note you will only have to do this once:

Download the ‘unsealer’ from the Sealed Media website by clicking the link below (you can select a Windows or Mac version):

Download the sealed Guide you want to view from the Members’ Area (free download section) of the CIBSE website – we recommend you save it to your machine first rather than open it directly.

Open the sealed PDF file (SPDF) and when prompted, enter your email address and password (which is your CIBSE membership number). If you then click the automatic log-in box you won’t have to enter these details again, either to open the same file or any other sealed PDF files we make available in the future.