dcm4che2 DICOM Toolkit
New version available
The dcm4che 2 toolkit is deprecated, please use the dcm4che 5 Toolkit & Library instead.
Download Link
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
Developing Applications with dcm4che2
A very basic introduction to DICOM
The standard download should suit most users, but if you need to build it, or just want to download the source and experiment here is how to build 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These references may be out of date!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