WinOLS projects and tuning files
WinOLS is the map editor most professional tuners work in, and a WinOLS project is where all the work on a given control unit lives — the located maps, the named axes, every saved version. This page explains what that actually means, and how to get a mapped, checksum-corrected project without doing the mapping yourself.
- Pre-built projects, checksum-corrected
- Delivered as a WinOLS .ols project file
- Open the full project or only the versions you need
- Works with reads from KESS3, Autotuner and MMS Flex
What WinOLS is
WinOLS is Windows software from EVC electronic, written specifically to modify the memory contents of engine and transmission control units. It takes a raw read from an ECU — a file that is otherwise an undifferentiated block of bytes — and helps you find the calibration tables inside it, which you can then name, view as 2D or 3D surfaces, and change.
That is the whole job in one sentence, and it is why the software is central to file tuning. An ECU read contains no labels. Boost targets, injection quantity, torque limiters and the throttle map are all in there, but nothing marks where one ends and the next begins. WinOLS is the tool that turns that block into something a human can work on: its automatic map search locates candidate tables and lists them, and its editor is where the actual calibration work happens.
It is not a reading or flashing tool. WinOLS never touches the vehicle. You read the ECU with a hardware tool — KESS3, Autotuner, MMS Flex or similar — edit the file in WinOLS, and write it back with the same hardware.
What a WinOLS project actually contains
A project file is not a copy of the binary. EVC describe it as holding all the information obtained in the course of processing a given controller, and that is the useful distinction: the original read, every map that has been located and named, the axis definitions, and the notes attached along the way. Details such as the customer name, the vehicle registration and image files can be stored alongside it.
Changes are kept as versions rather than as overwrites. Up to 200 versions of one original file can live in a single project, each one commentable, with the original preserved throughout — which is what makes it possible to keep a Stage 1, a Stage 2 and a DPF-off variant of the same file side by side and compare them, instead of maintaining three unrelated binaries and hoping you remember which is which.
This is why a project is worth more than a finished .bin. The binary is the answer; the project is the working-out. Open a project and the maps are already found and labelled, so the next variant is an edit rather than a fresh mapping job.
DAMOS and A2L files
DAMOS and A2L are manufacturer calibration-description files. They do not contain a tune — they describe the ECU software: where each map sits in memory, what its axes mean, what units the values carry and what function the table belongs to. Feed one into WinOLS and the guesswork disappears: instead of a list of candidate tables, you get named, documented maps.
WinOLS reads them through EVC's DAMOS/A2L import plugin, which handles the .a2l, .asap2, .dam and .damos extensions. Availability is the catch — these are development files, they exist for some ECU software versions and not others, and a matching one for your exact file may simply not be obtainable.
A well-built project is the practical substitute. Someone has already done the identification work and saved it, which is the same benefit a DAMOS gives you, arrived at from the other direction.
Checksum correction, and why it decides whether a file flashes
An ECU verifies its own memory. Change a value in a calibration table and the stored checksum no longer matches the data, and the control unit responds by refusing the write or throwing a fault — regardless of whether the calibration itself was any good. Correcting checksums is therefore not a finishing touch; it is the difference between a file that flashes first time and one that does not.
WinOLS handles this through checksum plugins, one per ECU family, which recognise the applicable module and re-correct after each change. EVC ship modules across the Bosch EDC16, EDC17, MED17 and ME7 families, Siemens/Continental, Delphi, Denso, Marelli and a range of transmission controllers.
Every project and every tuning file StageGen returns is checksum-corrected before you receive it. You do not need the matching plugin licensed on your own installation for our output to write cleanly.
Do you need a WinOLS licence?
To open and edit a project yourself, yes. WinOLS is commercial software from EVC, sold as a workstation licence, with newer features released as premium features renewed annually — the base software keeps running when a premium period lapses. WinOLS 5 runs on Windows 10 and 11 (x64) and Windows 11 on ARM.
To buy a finished tuning file, no. That is the honest split, and it is worth being clear about: if you want to do your own calibration work, you need the licence, the hardware and the time to learn the software. If you want a file for a specific vehicle, you do not — upload your read to the tuning service and download a checksum-corrected result.
A project sits between the two. It is for someone who does own WinOLS and wants the mapping work already done, rather than starting from an unlabelled binary every time.
Pre-built projects from StageGen
Upload the read from your control unit and we match it against our project database. When a project matches, you can take the whole thing or only the versions you actually need — the result is delivered as a WinOLS .ols project file that opens directly in your installation, with the mapping already in place and checksums corrected.
Projects are €69.95. A plain tuning file, if you do not need the project itself, is €49.95, and unlocking a protected slave read so it can be edited at all is €9.95.
- Full project — everything held for that control unit
- Parted project — only the versions you select
- Delivered as .ols, checksum-corrected
Getting the file into WinOLS in the first place
WinOLS imports binary files and Intel or Motorola hex files. A master read is one of those already, so it opens directly — .bin, .ori, .mpc and the other common master formats.
A read from a slave tool is not. Slave devices hand you an encrypted container that no editor will open, by design: that restriction is what separates a slave licence from a master one. It has to be unlocked first, either through our crypt/decrypt service or by linking your device to our master.
- Alientech KESS3 — see the KESS3 page for how slave files are protected
- Autotuner — see the Autotuner page
- MMS Flex — .mmf containers, decrypted and re-encrypted on request
Which control units are covered
The project database covers the control units that make up the bulk of the European parc, across both petrol and diesel. If your read comes from one of these families, there is a high chance we already hold matching projects for it.
- Bosch EDC15, EDC16, EDC17 (including C74 and C76)
- Bosch ME7, MED9, MED17, MEVD17
- Bosch MG1 and MD1 (MG1CS001, MG1CS003, MG1CS011, MG1CS111 and related)
- Siemens/Continental SID, SIMOS, MSD and PCR families
- Delphi DCM, Marelli MJD and IAW, Denso, Temic/ZF transmission units
Frequently asked questions
Related
- Tuning files The finished calibration rather than the project behind it — Stage 1 to Stage 3 and individual options, from €49.95.
- Crypt / Decrypt Unlock a protected slave read so WinOLS can open it, then re-seal it after editing.
- KESS3 files How Alientech protect slave reads, and what you get back after a decode.
- File services Every individual service — Stage maps, deletes and drivability options.