Vote of your choice of best toolkit - DCMTK or MergeCom3 or others?

[Sri]

Hi there,

I intend to build vendor-neutral, robust, PACS connectivity product.
Which one would you recommend (or wouldn't recommend) for windows
platform?
You might have had good/bad experiences over the years using these
toolkits, I was wondering if I could ask this in this post to know
your opinion.

If you had any connectivity issues using DCMTK or MergeCom3 or other
toolkits, could you pls. share them here? I would appreciate your
responses.

Thanks for your time,
Sridhar

[Sri]

Post by Sri
Hi there,
I intend to build vendor-neutral, robust, PACS connectivity product.
Which one would you recommend (or wouldn't recommend) for windows
platform?
You might have had good/bad experiences over the years using these
toolkits, I was wondering if I could ask this in this post to know
your opinion.
If you had any connectivity issues using DCMTK or MergeCom3 or other
toolkits, could you pls. share them here? I would appreciate your
responses.
Thanks for your time,
Sridhar

To add on - I intend to provide basic services like Q/R SCU & SCP,
MWM, MPPS and Print SCU with multi-language support. Sharing your
opinion & experiences is greatly appreciated.

[Limited_Atonement]

Dear Mr. Sri,

I wrote my own and I recommend doing the same. Mine can handle
dicom files and network communications. If you're looking to make a
commercial all-purpose Dicom tool, this may not be the right way to go
because the work is overwhelming, but if you're looking to solve
problems for your company or something, this is a great way to go.
I've created mine as needs arose, first, to read a dicom file and read
off some SQs, create a visual representation of the items (Ion Range
Compensators, and Ion Blocks (static apertures)), and compare them.
Then, I needed to send RT Ion plans back and forth to an Oncology
Information System and such.
The guy that worked here before me used a commercial library and the
problems he had were phenomenal. Most of all, he couldn't fix them!!
How frustrating it must have been to not only have Dicom problems, but
to have to trace them down to the library, and not be able to read
through the code and figure out what's going on, especially with
subtle problems!
Good luck!

Aaron

[Sri]

Post by Limited_Atonement
Dear Mr. Sri,
  I wrote my own and I recommend doing the same.  Mine can handle
dicom files and network communications.  If you're looking to make a
commercial all-purpose Dicom tool, this may not be the right way to go
because the work is overwhelming, but if you're looking to solve
problems for your company or something, this is a great way to go.
I've created mine as needs arose, first, to read a dicom file and read
off some SQs, create a visual representation of the items (Ion Range
Compensators, and Ion Blocks (static apertures)), and compare them.
Then, I needed to send RT Ion plans back and forth to an Oncology
Information System and such.
  The guy that worked here before me used a commercial library and the
problems he had were phenomenal.  Most of all, he couldn't fix them!!
How frustrating it must have been to not only have Dicom problems, but
to have to trace them down to the library, and not be able to read
through the code and figure out what's going on, especially with
subtle problems!
  Good luck!
Aaron

Thank you very much for posting your opinion Mr.Aaron.

If I May ask - what sort of connectivity issues you typically had to
face with the off-the-shelf toolkits you had used before?
I would love going on writing my own kit if not for the time and
effort constraints. Since I'll have to deal (connect to) with multiple
vendors, I want to be extra careful when choosing them because I have
heard horror stories as well.

Sri

[roniza]

Dear Sri,

If you would like to do it fast, on windows, i strongly suggest you
take a look at rzdcx - www.roniza.com
It is based on dcmtk buf would take in dcmtk ir merge a page or more
of code, is just a single line of code with rzdcx.
Rzdcx has many full source code examples on the web site that you can
easily start from.
If you also need a head start with hl7 too, take a look at www.hl7kit.com.

Best regards,
Roni

[Alvin]

Hello Sri,

If you are looking for an open source windows application, then DCMTK
is the best choice.
But one thing they are lacking is an integrated DICOM viewer.
Then also, creating a viewer with DCMTK is not a difficult task and
some of the great medical viewers are based on DCMTK toolkit.

Cheers,
Alvin

[Sri]

Post by Alvin
Hello Sri,
If you are looking for an open source windows application, then DCMTK
is the best choice.
But one thing they are lacking is an integrated DICOM viewer.
Then also, creating a viewer with DCMTK is not a difficult task and
some of the great medical viewers are based on DCMTK toolkit.
Cheers,
Alvin

Thanks all for your responses. Would be more interested to hear on
your feedback of dcmtk/merge/clearcavas toolkits on the
interoperability front (when operating with multiple vendors)? You can
share your experience here. thanks in advance!

[Lennart Kolmodin]

Post by Sri

Post by Sri
Hi there,
I intend to build vendor-neutral, robust, PACS connectivity product.
Which one would you recommend (or wouldn't recommend) for windows
platform?
You might have had good/bad experiences over the years using these
toolkits, I was wondering if I could ask this in this post to know
your opinion.
If you had any connectivity issues using DCMTK or MergeCom3 or other
toolkits, could you pls. share them here? I would appreciate your
responses.
Thanks for your time,
Sridhar

To add on - I intend to provide basic services like Q/R SCU & SCP,
MWM, MPPS and Print SCU with multi-language support. Sharing your
opinion & experiences is greatly appreciated.

Maybe it doesn't do everything you need, but I've been using mdcm at
my company.
I implemented a worklist, and it turned out to be quite easy.

There are examples in Dicom/Network/Server, Dicom/Network/Client,
DicomDump, DicomScu.

http://groups.google.com/group/mdcm
https://github.com/rcd/mdcm

Best regards,
Lennart

[Dave]

I would recommend ClearCanvas, which is .NET based.

However if you do want to stay with C++/C libries, then I think the
MERGE is a better choice.
- Dave