dcmmkcrv(1)

📦
version 3.7.1 · 10 versions
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💅 dcmmkcrv(1) — the OFFIS DCMTK era, bestie

okay so real talk: this is the dcmmkcrv manual page, and it's about gluing 2D curve data onto a DICOM image. niche? yes. iconic? also yes. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

dcmmkcrv — add 2D curve data to image 💫

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

dcmmkcrv [options] dcmfile-in curvedata-in dcmfile-out

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So dcmmkcrv is the little utility that lets you make DICOM images that have curve data in them. And like — curve data is barely used by vendors these days, ngl. Which is exactly why this exists: it's a way to test implementations that can read curve data. Think of it as a stress test for the brave. 💀

Here's the vibe: it reads an existing DICOM image, plus a text file that has the curve data in textual form. Then it creates a DICOM curve data repeating group according to whatever options you put on the command line, adds that group to the existing image, and writes it back out to file. The output file gets encoded with the same transfer syntax as the input file — no sneaky changes, periodt. ✨

Heads up: this utility only supports the creation of two-dimensional curves. 2D only, bestie. 🫶

🐚 PARAMETERS 🐚

  • dcmfile-in — the DICOM input image file (use "-" for stdin)
  • curvedata-in — the curve data input file (text)
  • dcmfile-out — the DICOM output filename (use "-" for stdout)

✨ OPTIONS ✨

💜 general options

  • -h, --help — print this help text and exit. your classic cry-for-help button 🥹
  • --version — print version information and exit
  • --arguments — print expanded command line arguments
  • -q, --quiet — quiet mode, print no warnings and errors 🤫
  • -v, --verbose — verbose mode, print processing details 👀
  • -d, --debug — debug mode, print debug information 🐛
  • -ll, --log-level [l]evel: string constant — use level l for the logger. the level can be fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace
  • -lc, --log-config [f]ilename: string — use config file f for the logger

🌈 curve creation options

💫 curve type:

  • -r, --poly — create as POLY curve (this is the default, she's the main character)
  • +r, --roi — create as ROI curve

🍓 curve value representation:

  • +v, --data-vr [n]umber: integer 0..4 (default: 4) — select curve data VR: 0=US, 1=SS, 2=FL, 3=FD, 4=SL
  • -c, --curve-vr [n]umber: integer 0..2 (default: 0) — select the VR with which the Curve Data element is written: 0=VR according to --data-vr, 1=OB, 2=OW

🌼 repeating group:

  • -g, --group [n]umber: integer 0..15 (default: 0) — select repeating group: 0=0x5000, 1=0x5002 etc. (yes, "etc." — it keeps going, iykyk)

🧚 curve description:

  • -l, --label s: string — set Curve Label to s (default: absent)
  • +d, --description s: string — set Curve Description to s (default: absent)
  • -a, --axis x: string, y: string — set Axis Units to x*y* (default: absent)

🔥 NOTES 🔥

📝 Syntax of the Curve Data File

The curve data file is expected to be a plain ASCII text file with numbers in it (integer or floating point) that make up the values of the point coordinates. Numbers must be separated by whitespace, no cap. And like — there is zero checking of the value range, and no value range conversion performed either. So don't come crying to her if your numbers are unhinged. 🙈

Example, keep it exactly like this:

256.451947    1.000000
477.689863  128.822080
128.822080  477.689863
 35.310137  128.822080
256.451947    1.000000

🖥️ LOGGING 🖥️

The level of logging output of the various command line tools and underlying libraries can be specified by the user, bestie — it's a whole vibe you get to choose. By default, only errors and warnings are written to the standard error stream. If you use option --verbose, you also get informational messages like processing details. Option --debug gives you even more details on the internal activity, e.g. for debugging purposes. Other logging levels can be selected with option --log-level. In --quiet mode only fatal errors are reported — and in those very severe error events, the application will usually terminate. 😭 For more details on the different logging levels, see documentation of module "oflog".

In case the logging output should be written to file (optionally with logfile rotation), to syslog (Unix) or the event log (Windows), option --log-config can be used. This configuration file also lets you direct only certain messages to a particular output stream, and filter certain messages based on the module or application where they're generated. An example configuration file is provided in <etcdir>/logger.cfg. 🎀

⌨️ COMMAND LINE ⌨️

All command line tools use the following notation for parameters: square brackets enclose optional values (0-1), three trailing dots indicate that multiple values are allowed (1-n), and a combination of both means 0 to n values.

Command line options are distinguished from parameters by a leading + or - sign, respectively. Usually, order and position of command line options are arbitrary (i.e. they can appear anywhere). BUT — if options are mutually exclusive, the rightmost appearance is used. This behavior conforms to the standard evaluation rules of common Unix shells. 💅

In addition, one or more command files can be specified using an @ sign as a prefix to the filename (e.g. @command.txt). Such a command argument is replaced by the content of the corresponding text file (multiple whitespaces are treated as a single separator unless they appear between two quotation marks) prior to any further evaluation. Please note that a command file cannot contain another command file — no command-file inception, sorry. 🌀 This simple but effective approach allows one to summarize common combinations of options/parameters and avoids longish and confusing command lines (an example is provided in file <datadir>/dumppat.txt).

🌍 ENVIRONMENT 🌍

The dcmmkcrv utility will attempt to load DICOM data dictionaries specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. By default — i.e. if the DCMDICTPATH environment variable is not set — the file <datadir>/dicom.dic will be loaded, unless the dictionary is built into the application (which is the default for Windows).

The default behavior should be preferred, and the DCMDICTPATH environment variable only used when alternative data dictionaries are required. The DCMDICTPATH environment variable has the same format as the Unix shell PATH variable, in that a colon (":") separates entries. On Windows systems, a semicolon (";") is used as a separator. The data dictionary code will attempt to load each file specified in the DCMDICTPATH environment variable. It is an error if no data dictionary can be loaded. ⭐

Copyright (C) 1998-2026 by OFFIS e.V., Escherweg 2, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany.

okay that's the whole page, you ate that 💅✨ Version 3.7.1, dated Sat Oct 17 2026 09:34:01 — go forth and make some 2D curves, bestie 🦋💖

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