All our software run on PC running Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 (but not RT).

The software would probably run on Linux or Unix system if they have a Windows binary emulator installed but we have not tested them for compatibility.

Note: On Vista, 7 and 8 you will need to run readOmatic as "Administrator" to access the SCSI devices.

Operating System: Windows (XP, Vista, 7 and 8 (but not RT))

USB port: we need one to plug the dongle that contains the license. For readOmatic you need a SCSI card and a SCSI media drive.

Note: readOmatic does not work with SCSI to USB adapters.

You do not need any license to evaluate the software!
Just download the software from our web site. Without licenses, the software has some limitations: it will add a watermark to the image, remove the patient name and ID and Study number; but that should not prevent you from testing the functionality with your system.
Also, The "Push to DICOM Server" and "store in DICOM Format" options will not be available and it will let your read only 5 images from a media per session. These will be named "readOmatic_DEMO_1" to "readOmatic_DEMO_5" in the "C:\temp" directory.

If you encounter medias or images that we can not read or convert, please contact us, we may be able to add the support of your images to our product.

You can find the pricing of DICOMatic and its modules and the information on how to order a license, on this "how to buy a license"page.
There is a no educational discount for DICOMatic or any of its modules.

You can find the procedure to purchase a license on this "how to buy a license" page.
In this page, you will also have access to our automatic quote generator and order forms.

Most problems with the licenses can be solved by following the instructions in the License troubleshooting page.

No you don't. Just install the new version on top of the old one.

However with the new installation, some of the tables may have changed. Since you may have a copy of these files in your user directory (C:\Documents and Settings\your name here\Application Data\TomoVision), your copy may be out of date. If it is, the program will let you know. If which case you can either delete your copy to force the program to use the new one from the installation directory, or add the latest modifications to your copy of the files.

Also, if your upgrade license has expired, the new version of the software will not be recognized by the licenses.
If this is the case, you may want to renew your update contract.

Yes you can, the license is in your dongle. Just install the program on the new machine and move your dongle to that system.

There are so many different image format out there, it is to be expected that DICOMatic can not recognize them all! It could be that your images are in a completely new (to us) format, or maybe it is just a slight variation of a known format.

The best thing to do is to email us a sample of these images. If it is just a variation of a known format, it should be fairly simple for us to modify the program so that it can recognize your images. If it is a format we do not know, then things become more tricky... We may still be able to add this format to our converter, but we will need some help from you! We will need sample images, along with all the information you have on the images and their origin ( what scanner produce them, how was it saved...). Of course, if you have the format description it would be a big help.

We do not charge anything for this, but we do expect that, if we manage to add this format to our program, you will buy a license (if you did not already have one).

Since the images usually contain patient information, you will want to sign and fax us a copy of our confidentiality agreement. We will counter sign it and fax it back to you.

Or, if the image data in your file is not compressed, you can create a new header with our Raw_Header tool see box) and drop that header in DICOMatic to convert the file.

Your image contains a variation of a known format. We knew (or suspected) that an image such as yours existed, but we never encountered one before. If you could send us your image, we will modify our converter to correctly handle this special case.

Since the images usually contain patient information, you will want to sign and fax us a copy of our confidentiality agreement. We will counter sign it and fax it back to you.

If you use the "configuration" interface to edit the "Conversion Rules" file, you will edit the file in your own user's directory (C:\Documents and Settings\your username here\Application Data\TomoVision). To make these changes visible to all the other users on the system, you either have to replace their copy of the file, or replace the default copy in the installation directory (by default: C:\Program Files\TomoVision) with your own. Make sure to increase the revision number when you edit the file. This will ensure that any other users already having his own copy of the file will be warned that their copy is not up-to-date.

The conversion module will not push the images to the PACS. However, you can use the DICOM_Watch module to do this for you. Instead of dropping your images on DICOMatic, start DICOM_Watch and drop your images in the "watched" directory. DICOM_Watch will grab the images, send them to the conversion module and push the converted images to the PACS.

This is done either by using the "-d dir_name" command line arguments when calling the application, or by removing the comments and editing the "FILE_PATH" argument in the following lines of the Conversions Rules file:

						; ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
						; Use this rule to send the converted images to a specific directory 
						; ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
						; if ( 1 ) 
						; { 
						;    FILE_PATH = "c:\target directory\" 
						;    AUDIT " file will be written to:" FILE_PATH " " FILE_NAME 
						;    REPORT " file will be written to:" FILE_PATH " " FILE_NAME 
						; } 
					

Yes you can. You will want to get the latest list of command line arguments from the readme file.

Yes you can. This is exactly how readOmatic and DICOM_Watch convert the images. Here is a piece of "C" code that can be used to call DICOMatic from your application:

						#include 	// for spawn()
						#define	DICOM_CONVERTER "DICOMatic"
						...

						// --- Convert the TIFF image to DICOM ---
						int ret = spawnl( P_WAIT, "My_Program", DICOM_CONVERTER,
										"-a", in_file,
										"-b", out_file,
										NULL ) ;

						switch( ret ) {
						case 0 : // --- it worked
							return( 1 ) ;
						case 1 :	// --- Unknown image format
							return( 0 ) ;
						case 3 :	// --- Unable to open input file
							return( 0 ) ;
						case 4 :	// --- Unable to open output file
							return( 0 ) ;
						case 5 :	// --- Bad header in input file
							return( 0 ) ;
						case 6 :	// --- Bad image in input file
							return( 0 ) ;
						case 8 :	// --- To many images in input file
							return( 0 ) ;
						case -1 :	// --- Unable to start DICOMatic program
							return( 0 ) ;
						case -2 :	// --- Unknown arguments
							return( 0 ) ;
						default :	// --- License problems 
							return( 1 ) ;
						}
						...
					

You can. There is already a table in the DICOM Tables directory prepared for this: "DICOM_Attributes_Anonymous.txt". The only thing you have to do is edit the module table of the modality you want to anonymize to add the line "Anonymous ;" at the end of the table.

Ex: to anonymize all CT images dropped in DICOMatic, edit the table "DICOM_Module_CT_Image.txt" to add the following lines at the end:

						; --- Anonymize the images --- 
						Anonymous ;
					

Yes you can. However, TIFF and JPEG images do not have any of the patient information needed to make a valid DICOM image. They also do not have information on the slice position they have only 8 bits of grey levels per pixels). For this reason, if the TIFF or JPEG images are derived from scanner images, try to use the original images instead.

Since so much information is missing, when converting TIFF and JPEG, DICOMatic will create the image using the "Secondary Capture" (SC) DICOM modality. In this modality, the slice position and the other pixel metrics are not required. But you still need the patient information.

To add these missing information to the created files, you have 2 choices:
- You can place the program in "Interactive Mode" and add the missing values by hand.
Or, if you have access to the missing values in a database,
- you can write a small program that will interface with DICOMatic to add the missing values. Please see the next question.

The best way to do this is through the DICOM Tables. DICOMatic provide a mechanism to add default or override values to any of the tags in the DICOM tables. (the syntax for this can be found in the manual and in the file "DICOM_Attributes_Syntax.txt" in the DICOM Tables directory.) What is more, DICOMatic also has a mechanism to input an external table that will overwrite the existing table values. This is the "override" table. You can use the [-o override_file] command line arguments to read an override table.
For example, if we want to convert the file "image.dat" and override its study ID, patient's name and patient's ID. we first create the folowing file:

						file "override.txt"
						 = (0010,0010)  "Toto Gingras"         ; Patient Name
						 = (0010,0020)  "12345"                ; Patient ID
						 = (0020,0010)  "54321"                ; Study ID
					

and call DICOMatic with the following command:

						DICOMatic -a "c:\image.dat" -o "c:\override.txt"
					

The resulting file will be image.dcm in the c: directory.

If you only have a few information to change, it can also be done through the rules file. Again, DICOMatic provide a way of inputting variables to the rules files. The command line arguments "-0 string_0" to "-9 string_9" can be used to place the values "string_0" to "string_9" in the user variables "USER_0" to "USER_9". These variables can then be used in the rules file.
For example, adding the following rules:

						PATIENT_NAME = USER_0
						PATIENT_ID = USER_1
						STUDY_ID = USER_2
					

and calling DICOMatic with the following command:

						DICOMatic -a "c:\image.dat" -0 "Toto Gingras" -1 "12345" -2 "54321"
					

will have the same results as the previous example.

The UID are used to identify some informations in the DICOM files, such as the patient, the study or the image. Each of these informations must be uniquely identified by their UID. In oder word, 2 different entities of a information can not have the same UID. However, if the information is converted by DICOMatic in separate ocasions, it must have the same UID.
For example, the patient UID must be unique for each patient, but the same patient in 2 different images must have the same UID.

To achieve this, DICOMatic create the UID by assembling the following components: - root UID: By default, this is the TomoVision's UID "1.2.826.0.1.3680043.2.307". The value of the root UID can be changed in the command line or the DICOMatic.ini file.
- Code Format: a code representing the format of the original image (up to 2 digits)
- Code Patient: a code representing the original format, followed by 2 numbers derived from the Patient's name (up to 5 digits) and ID (up to 6 digits).
- Code Study: a number representing the study date (up to 5 digits) followed by a number derived from the Study number (up to 6 digits).
- Code Series: a number derived from the Series number (up to 3 digits).
- Code Image: a number derived from the acquisition, accession and temporal numbers (up to 3 digits) if present, followed by a number derived from the image number (up to 4 digits).
- Code Frame: the constant 1001

To create the different UID found in the DICOM file, the components are assemble thus:

					Study Instance UID (0020, 000D) = root UID "." Code Format "." Code Patient "." Code Study
					Series Instance UID (0020, 000E) = root UID "." Code Format "." Code Patient "." Code Study "." Code Series
					Media Storage SOP Instance UID (0002, 0003) and SOP Instance UID (0008, 0018) = root UID "." Code Format "." Code Patient "." Code Study "." Code Series "." Code Image
					Frame of Reference UID (0020, 0052) = root UID "." Code Format "." Code Patient "." Code Study "." Code frame
					

Note: The maximum length that an image UID can have is 64 bytes.
The scheme we use can take up to 38 characters without counting the root UID. The default root UID used by DICOMatic (TomoVision's UID) has 25 characters. If you want to replace this value by one of your own, be aware that it should not have more than 26 characters!

Starting with Windows Vista, the SCSI operation are protected. The program need administartor priviledges to talk to the SCSI devices. Right click on the readOmatic icon, under "Properties", in the "Compatibility" tab, select the "Run this program as an administrator" option.

The first thing to check is whether you are running Windows Vista or a later version (7 or 8). Starting with Windows Vista, the SCSI operation are protected. The program need administrator privileges to talk to the SCSI devices. Right click on the readOmatic icon, under "Properties", in the "Compatibility" tab, select the "Run this program as an administrator" option.

If you have an older Windows, you may want to install the ASPI drivers from Adaptec to talk to the SCSI devices (starting with Vista, ASPI is no longer available, the SCSI devices can only be accessed through ASPI).

If you still do not see your devices, then it may be that you drive is not included in the "SCSI_List.dat" file. That file contains all the drives that readOmatic recognized. If it is not already in the file, you can add it using the configuration/SCSI_List interface. For more information on this process please refer to the readOmatic's manual.

There are so many different archive format out there, it is to be expected that readOmatic can not recognize them all!

It could be that your disk or tape is in a completely new (to us) format, or maybe it is just a slight variation of a known format.

The best thing to do is to send us a sample of these media. If it is just a variation of a known format, it should be fairly simple for us to modify the program so that it can recognize your archives. If it is a format we do not know, then things become more tricky... We may still be able to add this format to our reader, but we will need some help from you! We will need sample media, along with all the information you have on the archives and their origin (what scanner produce them, how was it saved...). Of course, if you have the format description it would be a big help.

We do not charge anything for this, but we do expect that, if we manage to add this format to our program, you will buy a license (if you did not already have one). However, if you send us an original disk or tape, we will ask that you pay for the FedEx return fee. We can either bill you for the shipping, or you can provide us with a FedEx account we can use.

Since the archives usually contain patient information, you will want to sign and fax us a copy of our confidentiality agreement. We will counter sign it and fax it back to you. (See box)

If you want to send us a disk (MOD or WORM), you have 2 choices:
- You can send us the original media by FedEx and we will ship it back to you within a week. When we receive the media, we ensure that it is "write protected", make a copy of it, and return the original. We only work from the copy to minimize the risk of anything happening to the original.
- You can make a copy of the original using our SCSI_Duplicate tool and send us the copy. (See box)

This is a hardware message. It is given directly by your drive, readOmatic is just the messenger here. There's a few possible reasons why the drive give you this warning:

- You are attempting to read a Pioneer disk in a non-Pioneer drive (or vise-versa)
- You are attempting to read a WORM disk in a drive that can only read MOD disks (or vice-versa)
- You are attempting to read a disk having a higher data density than what your drive can read
- Your have a hardware problem with your drive

You can not use it as a batch, but you can use the library included in the download to call readOmatic from your application (see the included example).

The scanner's archive media are either MOD disks, WORM disks or tapes. The drives needed to read these archives are all SCSI devices, and they are all rather slow devices. So you do not need one of the fast and fancy SCSI card used to access very high-speed hard drives. You can use any low performance cards designed for scanners (such as the Adaptec's 19160).

The next thing to watch for is the cable you will use to hook up your drive to the PC's card. Presently, for external devices, there's at least 4 different connectors used on these devices: DB-25, CENT50, HDB50, HDB68. You have to make sure your cables will have the proper connectors to link-up the components.

Yes you can. The only problem you may have is with the SCSI link between your laptop and the SCSI drives. ReadOmatic does not work with USB to SCSI adapters. However, we have tested the application with a CardBus SCSI adapter (Adaptec's SlimSCSI 1480) and it worked just fine.

There's a number of vendors that will provide new or refurbished SCSI drives to read your archives. At TomoVision, we are buying our drives from Microtechnologies.

By default, the maximum block size accessible with the SCSI inetrface is 64Kb. Apparently, on Windows 7 and 8 that can not be changed! However, on the older windows you can configure the SCSI card to see bigger blocks. If you are using Adapec cards, you need to change a register value for this:

1. Run the Registry Editor.

2. For non-Ultra2 host adapters, open:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\aic78xx\Parameters\Device

For Ultra2 host adapters, open:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\aic78u2\Parameters\Device

3. Then, in Device, create a New DWORD and call it MaximumSGList

4. You can either simply set the Maximum to hex ff to allow any situation or set it as follows :

hex 11 (decimal 17) for 64kb block size
hex 21 (decimal 33) for 256kb block size
hex 41 (decimal 65) for 256kb block size
hex 81 (decimal 129) for 512kb block size

MaximumSGList = (Maximum Block Size)/4K +1

Yes you can. However, since you can not write on a CD, the following arguments must be set in the DICOM_Watch.ini file:

					; ====================================================== 
					; Working Directories 
					; ====================================================== 

					; --- "watched" directory name --- 
					watch_dir= "E:"	 ; Place the CD root directory here 

					; --- converted images are sent to "done_dir" --- 
					done_dir= "C:\DICOM\done\" 

					; --- file that can not be converted are sent to "failed_dir" --- 
					; Special case: if failed dir is ".", the file is not moved 
					failed_dir= "." 

					; --- Keep original files flag (0/1 flag) --- 
					; if set, the original will be transfered to the "kept_dir" 
					kept= 0 

					; --- a copy (if keep: 1) of the files is sent to "kept_dir" --- 
					; Special case: if kept dir is ".", the file is not moved 
					kept_dir= "." 

					

If the scanner is accessible by FTP then you can "pull" the images directly from it.