DicomObjects.NET consists of an inter-related, but independent, set of .NET "Objects" that enable developers to quickly and easily add DICOM functionality to their products without needing to understand or program the intricacies of the DICOM standard. This help file provides full reference to those objects and also some introductory guidance.
Almost any aspect of DICOM image/data manipulation can be performed using DicomObjects, including:
The main Components of DicomObjects are:
A control that may be embedded into any .NET forms control container such as C#, Visual Basic.NET etc. It has extensive display capabilities for DICOM images, whether read from files, received over the network, or from numerous other sources, and these include a wide range of annotations, and full DICOM greyscale presentation state support.
An object that provides storage, query/retrieve and normalised facilities as a service class provider (SCP). Events are raised in response to incoming operations.
An object that handles the query/retrieve parts of the DICOM standard as a service class user (SCU).
An object that simplifies DICOM printing as a service class user (SCU).
Used for certain global operations, including logging and setting global behaviour.
A DicomAssociation Object represents a DICOM association, and may either be created automatically in response to an incoming query request, or explicitly by the client program. Methods of this object are used to send data, images, and verification requests.
Other classes and collections are created and used by the above, and some may also be created directly. They are:
| Object Description | Single Item | Collection |
|---|---|---|
| SOP instance, containing an image | DicomImage Class | DicomImageCollection Class |
| Generic SOP instance, used for results of DICOM queries or as a sub-element of a Sequence | DicomDataSet Class | DicomDataSetCollection Class |
| Attribute (Data Element) of a DicomDataSet | DicomAttribute Class | |
| DICOM Presentation context | DicomContext Class | DicomContextCollection Class |
| Image Annotation | DicomLabel Class | DicomLabelCollection Class |
| Licensing Information and Control | DicomLicense Class |
An object that represents the DICOM image with the pixel data and all the attributes as accessible properties. It is a superset of DicomDataSet Class, which in turn is a collection of DicomAttribute Class. DicomAttribute is the basic unit to hold A DICOM element, it is represented by a keyword/tag in the format (gggg,eeee), where gggg equates to the Group Number and eeee equates to the Element Number within that Group. These values are in hexadecimal notation as specified for each named Data Element in the Standard (PS3.6 Data Dictionary)
There is also a 3D specific DicomImage3D Class that supports MPR, MIP, VR & Slab rendering of DicomVolume
An object that represents annotations, markers on the displayed DICOM image.
A DicomException Object represents the errors that occur within DicomObjects which is wrapped and thrown as a manageable exception in the user code with descriptive error messages.