From the 2nd release onward, the converter contains also mapping files to assign reference flows and other elements from one format to the other. The user interface was never too beautiful almost all of the effort was spent on things below the user interface (which reminds us of an iceberg, always). Like openLCA, the openLCA format converter is an open source software, which means that both the software and its source code is publicly and freely available. The converter runs as a stand-alone application on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems – its installation is simple. Converted files can also be used by other LCA software packages, beyond openLCA. The tool converts various LCA data formats from one format into the other, including EcoSpold01 to ILCD, EcoSpold02 to ILCD, ILCD to EcoSpold01, and ILCD to EcoSpold02. Recently more and more effort is spent on mapping files used in the converter. The first releases were in April and August 2007, new versions were published in 20. We started working on the converter by the end of 2006. The Idea for the tool emerged at GreenDelta when discussions between the (then) new ILCD format and EcoSpold(1) did not come to an end. The converter was the first “piece” to be developed for the openLCA framework.
