It is a great pleasure to inform you about the release of the new openLCA version, 1.4.
It was hard work, but –
The new version is must faster than the previous one, can handle also very large databases such as ecoinvent 3 or the Social Hot Spots database, and can be directly and easily installed. You will realize a lot of usability improvements also; e.g., product systems can be created directly from a process, in the model graph, the location of each process box is stored, and the manual completion of supply chain has been revised and enhanced; filter sections help you narrow down selections. Not the least, we added also some I think interesting features; parameters are now much more powerful and fully supporting sensitivity analyses for example; you can model the inventory using GIS tools in openLCA, and we support regionalized LCIAs using shape files; you can also specify uncertainty for characterization factors. And then, there are additional import and export interfaces available, most interesting maybe import and export of process data sets in excel format, but also an import of the SimaPro csv format. If you are interested in more details, you may want to have a look at our “first steps in openLCA 1.4” text which is available here. To learn more about why openLCA is open source, see here: www.openlca.org/about/open-source.
Also, a broad range of databases is available for openLCA, including the new ecoinvent 3.0.1 “cut-off” model. For details, check https://nexus.openlca.org/.
So, if you are interested, the new version is available here, for free, for Mac, Windows 32 and64 bit, and Linux: www.openlca.org/downloads
To get you started, we are offering different trainings in the upcoming months, please see here: www.openlca.org/services/trainings, and also “guided case studies” and other services (www.openlca.org/services).
I personally believe that this release is really a major step forward, for openLCA, but maybe also for other LCA software systems; it would not have happened without our clients who were interested in a continued development of openLCA; some of them are listed in the “1st steps” text. So far, the development was performed by our team here at GreenDelta, but I am really glad to see that now other contributions are upcoming. To support this, there will be a dedicated developer training, in mid-August.
If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know.
Finally, we will give a free webinar “what’s new in openLCA 1.4″ on July 1st 2014, 2pm CEST – to register, please send an email to training@greendelta.com, with keyword ‘register for July 1′– many thanks.