DDAEvery tag in the folder, side by side.
DDA reads a whole folder of DICOM files at once and shows the tags you choose in one list, one row per file. Differences and mistakes stand out immediately. From there you edit, anonymize, view, measure, validate, send and receive.
Windows 7 or a 32-bit PC? Use DDA-Legacy.
These are the eight tags DDA starts with; the last two boxes are free. Try it: type a tag in one of the boxes and press Enter. 0028,0010, (0008,103E), 00280008 and the keyword InstitutionName all work, like in DDA. Click a column header to sort.
Measure, play video, follow CAD marks, test the whole workflow
The biggest updates since the rebuild. Everything below is in DDA.exe and, since 2.1.5, in DDA-Legacy too.
Presentation states and CAD
Grayscale Softcopy Presentation States (GSPS) are applied automatically: window, rotation, displayed area, shutters, text and graphics. The marks of a Mammography CAD SR are drawn on the tomosynthesis slice they belong to, and on the synthesized 2D image with the same Frame of Reference, labelled with the slab thickness, slice and height. PR information shows what a presentation state contains, as text: references, LUTs, shutters and every text and graphic with its coordinates.
Measure and read pixels
Distances in mm, rectangle and ellipse ROIs with mean, SD, min, max and area, and ROI boxes of exactly 64 x 64, 128 x 128 or 256 x 256 pixels that you place with one click; the SD only where the pixel values are linear. A 5 x 5 pixel matrix around the mouse, the position in mm from the top left corner, overlays (60xx), the slice height of tomosynthesis, and the DICOM details in the corners of the image.
Video and cine
DICOM video in MPEG-2, H.264 or HEVC plays in its own window: pause, frame by frame, speed, loop, save a frame as PNG or the video as it is. Multi-frame images and series play as a loop at the frame rate of the file. The video decoder is built in; nothing to install.
Quicker to work with
Double-click a file in the list to open its image or video; a presentation state or CAD SR opens its image with it, a structured report opens as a document. The Dicom Image Viewer shows the full Image window next to the thumbnails, so one click on a thumbnail is enough. Query / Retrieve, the Modality WorkList, Dicom Receive and the Study overview are all in the Tools menu; the menu bar shows whether Dicom Receive and the worklist provider run.
Pictures to DICOM
Turn JPG or PNG pictures, such as a wound photo or a scanned request, into DICOM Secondary Capture images in one series. DDA marks the fields DICOM and PACS need, explains each field, can take the patient and study from an existing file so the pictures join that study, and checks the result against the standard. The patient name is entered as family and given name and always stored as Family^Given.
English and Nederlands
View > Language switches all windows between English and Dutch at once; the first time DDA follows the language of Windows. DICOM names stay as the standard writes them.
Updates itself
Once a day DDA looks whether a newer version is online. Update now downloads it, checks its size and SHA-256 checksum, replaces the running exe and starts the new version; your settings stay. DDA-Legacy does the same with its own download.
Workflow testing
MPPS: report a procedure as IN PROGRESS, COMPLETED or DISCONTINUED like a modality, or receive MPPS like a RIS. Storage Commitment: ask a PACS to confirm it stores your files, or answer such requests with Dicom Receive.
Media and order
Open a CD, DVD or USB stick through its DICOMDIR, or write a File-set with DICOMDIR yourself. Sort and rename files into folders named after their tags. A study overview shows patients, studies and series and warns about inconsistent data.
Built for people who open DICOM folders every day
PACS and modality engineers, application specialists, researchers. Anyone who needs to look inside a folder of DICOM files quickly.
Analyze
Read a folder with or without sub folders. Patient Name, Patient ID and Accession Number are always shown, plus up to 10 tags of your choice, including tags inside sequences. Sort, find, hide rows, copy cells to Excel, export to CSV. Only headers are read while loading, so large folders open fast.
Inspect
All tags of a file with expanded sequences, a dcmdump-style DicomDump, a readable Structured Report view, a side-by-side compare of two files that colours similar, different and missing tags, an image viewer with thumbnails and the full Image window next to them, and a study overview of patients, studies and series with warnings about inconsistent data.
Edit
Change one value in place, or batch-edit many files with a saved list of actions (insert, modify, hash, erase, also inside sequences). A file is only written when every action succeeded. Every change can go to an audit log.
Validate
Check files against the current DICOM standard, like dciodvfy: required modules, type 1 and 2 attributes, VR formats, enumerated values. Repair what can be fixed without guessing, such as 2004-01-19 to 20040119. Not in DDA-Legacy.
Files
Move, copy and delete without overwriting anything. Decompress, or compress lossless to RLE, JPEG 2000 or JPEG-LS. Split multi-frame objects into single frames, or merge CT, MR and PET slices into a Legacy Converted Enhanced image. Read and write DICOMDIR media, and sort files into folders by their tags.
Network
Echo and Send, a receiver that can act as a mini-PACS, Query / Retrieve from a PACS with C-GET or C-MOVE, the Modality WorkList to query or simulate a modality worklist, MPPS and Storage Commitment. All optionally over TLS.
Window/level with the mouse, measurements and pixel values in HU
Zoom from fit to 1600%, pan, flip, mirror and invert, and scroll through every frame of a tomosynthesis file or every image of a CT series. Under the mouse DDA shows the position in pixels and mm, the stored value and, when the file has a rescale, the real value with its unit. Measure distances and ROIs, read a 5 x 5 pixel matrix, show overlays and the DICOM details in the corners, and see presentation states and CAD marks on the image. Play frames and series as a cine loop, and DICOM video in its own window. Drag on the synthetic phantom below to see how it feels.
Rescale −1024 · HU
- Drag left / right: narrower or wider window
- Drag up / down: brighter or darker
- Double-click: reset to the values in the file
- In DDA: right-drag for window, wheel to zoom, Ctrl + wheel for frames
- In DDA: Measure for distance, ROI and ROI boxes, Pixels 5x5, Info for the corners, Space to play
De-identification by the book: DICOM PS3.15 Annex E
Tools > Anonymize applies the Basic Application Level Confidentiality Profile. The rules come straight from Table E.1-1: for each of its more than 600 attributes, DDA removes, empties, replaces or re-UIDs the value exactly as the standard says.
Private tags are removed. The same old UID always maps to the same new UID, so studies, series and references stay intact. With a project key, a later run on more images of the same patients gives the same IDs and UIDs.
For quick work there is hashing too: a 16-character SHA-256 code such as 3F9A1C0B7D2E4A61. The same input always gives the same code, so files of one patient still belong together.
Files record what was done: Patient Identity Removed = YES, the de-identification method and the profile codes.
Every DICOM network service you need, in one window
Test a connection, send and receive images, search and retrieve from a PACS, and play modality, RIS or PACS yourself. Every connection needs an IP or host, a port, the called AE title and your own calling AE title.
| Function | In DDA | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DICOM Echo | Tools > Dicom Send > Echo | C-ECHO with the full association log |
| DICOM Send | Tools > Dicom Send | C-STORE of the selected files, with a green Send or red Failed result cell per file |
| DICOM Receive | Dicom Receive | A storage node that saves into the folder that was open when it started; it keeps running when you open another folder, and Import adds the received files to the list. Tick Query / Retrieve server to make it a mini-PACS |
| Query / Retrieve | Tools > Query / Retrieve | Study Root search with wildcards and date ranges, retrieve whole studies or single series with C-GET or C-MOVE |
| Modality Worklist | Tools > Modality WorkList | Query a worklist like a modality, or run a worklist provider with six test patients for today |
| MPPS | Tools > Modality WorkList > Send MPPS | Report a procedure as IN PROGRESS, COMPLETED or DISCONTINUED for a worklist entry, with the performed series; the worklist provider receives MPPS too |
| Storage Commitment | Tools > Storage Commitment | Ask a PACS to confirm it stores the selected files, with the result per file; Dicom Receive answers such requests |
All connections support DICOM over TLS 1.2 or higher, including mutual TLS. TLS usually runs on its own port, often 2762. Status 0xA801 after a C-MOVE means the PACS doesn't know your destination AE title; C-GET avoids that.
Fast with the keys
Most menu items work on every selected row. Select with click, Shift+click and Ctrl+click, or switch to cell mode to edit single values in the list.
Tag boxes accept every common notation: 0008,0060, (0008,0060), 00080060, the keyword Modality, or a path like (0040,0100)[0].(0008,0060).
| Ctrl O | Open a folder |
| F5 | Refresh with the current tags |
| Enter | View / Edit Dicom Tags of the selected file |
| Double-click | Open the image or video of the row |
| Ctrl E | Edit/Single Cell Mode on or off |
| Ctrl F | Find |
| Ctrl T | Study overview |
| Ctrl C | Copy selected cells, tab-separated |
| F1 | Quick Reference Manual, works offline |
| Home End | First / last frame in the Image window |
| Esc Del | Stop measuring / delete the last measurement |
| Space | Play / pause frames or a video |
Download, double-click, done
DDA.exe contains everything it needs, including the decoders for compressed images. Put it on the desktop or a USB stick. Settings live in %APPDATA%\DDA\settings.json and survive updates. Both editions are free for commercial and non-commercial use.
Download DDA.exe for Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), or DDA-Legacy.exe for Windows 7 and 32-bit systems.
Double-click it. The first time, Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unknown program: click More info, then Run anyway.
Start with a folder directly if you like:
DDA.exe "D:\Export\Study1", or drag a folder onto the exe.To update: DDA offers a new version by itself (at most once a day), or use Help > About. Update now installs it and starts DDA again.
DDA
Windows 10 / 11 · 64-bitThe full program: validation and repair against the DICOM standard, presentation states and CAD SR, measurements, DICOM video and cine, MPPS, Storage Commitment, DICOMDIR, sorting and the study overview.
Download DDA.exe v2.1.8DDA-Legacy
Windows 7 and newer · 32-bit and 64-bitThe same functions for older modality PCs and workstations, except validation against the DICOM standard. DICOM video plays with the decoders of Windows: H.264 on Windows 7 and newer, MPEG-2 and HEVC when Windows has them.
Download DDA-Legacy.exe v2.1.8