dcm4che2 DICOM Toolkit

New version available

The dcm4che 2 toolkit is deprecated, please use the dcm4che 5 Toolkit & Library instead.

Download the toolkit from the SourceForge website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dcm4che/files/dcm4che2/

Introduction

dcm4che2 is a high performance, open source implementation of the DICOM standard. It is developed in the Java programming language. Version 2.x of this toolkit (which is what this wiki space covers) is the next generation of the popular dcm4che-1.x DICOM toolkit. The toolkit has undergone a re-architecting with improvement over the 1.x version in the areas of speed, memory usage, simplicity, and a more robust DICOM dictionary implementation.

You'll often see the dcm4che-2.x DICOM toolkit referred to by a shorter notation: dcm4che2 or just the toolkit

The best way to get started with the toolkit is to use, and examine the code of, the sample applications referenced below. These are full featured applications that can be used in a stand-alone fashion, and demonstrate the capabilities of the toolkit.

The dcm4che2 toolkit implements the DICOM standard. As such, it is beneficial to the user that they have a good understanding of that standard.

Architecture

API Documentation

Developing Applications with dcm4che2

Stand Alone Utilities

These references may be out of date!

The most accurate reference for the tools is within the tools themselves. After downloading the toolkit, run the tool you're interested in with no arguments to see all of the available parameters and examples.

dcm4che2 contains a number of useful sample applications that may be used in conjunction with dcm4chee, with another archive application, or to operate on DICOM objects in a standalone fashion.  The utilities are a great place to get started with the toolkit. They're useful by themselves, and the code can be very helpful if you are interested in writing your own DICOM applications. They demonstrate most of the operations that you will have need of.

  • dcm2txt- Convert a DICOM object to text
  • dcm2xml- Convert a DICOM object to XML
  • dcmdir- Manipulate a DICOM dir
  • dcmecho - Initiate a C-ECHO command as an SCU
  • dcmgpwl - Query a General Purpose Worklist SCP
  • dcmmwl - Query a Modality Worklist SCP
  • dcmof - Simulate an Order Filler application
  • dcmqr - Perform C-FIND, C-GET and C-MOVE operations as an SCU
  • dcmrcv - DICOM receiver (C-STORE SCP)
  • dcmsnd - Perform C-STORE operations as an SCU
  • dcmups - Unified Worklist and Procedure Step SCU
  • dcmwado - Initiate DICOM WADO requests
  • jpg2dcm - Convert a JPEG image to DICOM
  • logger - Log files to a Syslog destination
  • mkelmdic - Create the serialized dcm4che2 DICOM Dictionary
  • mkuiddic - Create the dcm4che2 UID dictionary
  • mkvrmap - Create the dcm4che2 VR Mappings
  • pdf2dcm - Convert a PDF document to DICOM
  • rgb2ybr - Convert pixel data from YBR to RGB format
  • txt2dcmsr - Convert text to a DICOM Structured Report
  • xml2dcm - Convert XML to DICOM