How to use the DCM4CHE command line tools

john · July 28, 2025, 5:34pm

The DCM4CHE command line tools are really handy for some use cases.

You can find the command line tools realeases here

The version 5.34.0 are currently the latest ones.
On the github page they link to the binary downloadable versions here

Just unzip it and then you can use them.

Documentation can be found here GitHub - dcm4che/dcm4che: DICOM Implementation in JAVA

For example the storescu command can be used to send dicom files like this

storescu.bat -c <AET>@<host>:<port> <path_to_dicom_file_or_directory>

For me this would be

storescu.bat -c DCM4CHEE@ubuntu:11112 C:\downloads\dicom-test\2.25.295815560780803339366577056398026283395\2.25.147245794924701740687715738465713246299

github.com/dcm4che/dcm4che

dcm4che-tool/dcm4che-tool-storescu/README.md

master

```
usage: storescu [options] -c <aet>@<host>:<port> [<file>..][<directory>..]

The storescu application implements a Service Class User (SCU) for the
Storage Service Class and for the Verification SOP Class. For each DICOM
file on the command line it sends a C-STORE message to a Storage Service
Class Provider (SCP) and waits for a response. If no DICOM file is
specified, it sends a DICOM C-ECHO message and waits for a response. The
application can be used to transmit DICOM images and other DICOM composite
objects and to verify basic DICOM connectivity.
-
Options:
    --accept-timeout <ms>                 timeout in ms for receiving
                                          A-ASSOCIATE-AC, no timeout by
                                          default
 -b,--bind <aet[@ip]>                     specify AE Title, local address
                                          of the Application Entity
                                          provided by this application;
                                          use STORESCU and pick up any
                                          valid local address to bind the

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john · July 28, 2025, 6:21pm

You can also for example wrap a pdf into DICOM with the pdf2dcm command

github.com/dcm4che/dcm4che

dcm4che-tool/dcm4che-tool-pdf2dcm/README.md

master

    usage: pdf2dcm [options] <pdf|cda|stl|mtl|obj|genozip|bzip2-file>
               <dicom-file>
    or pdf2dcm [options] <pdf|cda|stl|mtl|obj|genozip|bzip2-file>...
    <dicom-outdir>
    or pdf2dcm [options] <pdf|cda|stl|mtl|obj|genozip|bzip2-indir>...
    <dicom-outdir>

    Encapsulate bulkdata PDF (extension pdf), CDA (extension xml), STL
    (extension stl), MTL (extension mtl) or OBJ (extension obj) or GENOZIP
    (extension genozip) or VCF Bzip2 (extensions vcf.bz2, vcfbzip2, vcfbz2) or
    Document Bzip2 (extensions boz, bz2) file(s) (or present in directories)
    into DICOM file(s) (or into DICOM directory). DICOM attributes can be
    specified via command line (using -m option) or a XML file (using -f
    option). If no option is specified, by default they are generated using
    sample metadata file present in the tool. If all the options are
    specified, system will generate metadata first from sample metadata file
    then from file specified by user and lastly add the attributes specified
    individually on command line. The Type 1 and Type 2 attributes, if
    missing, will be generated by the system.Supported content types are
    application/pdf (for PDF files), text/xml (for CDA files), application/sla

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Usage example here:

pdf2dcm.bat C:\downloads\dicom-test\pdf\pdf-sample-report.pdf C:\downloads\dicom-test\pdf\report.dcm

You will not get a patientId etc. into the dicom tags but you can do that by providing a
metadata.xml in addition to the pdf.

To check the contents of the DICOM tags you can use:

dcmdump.bat C:\downloads\dicom-test\pdf\report.dcm

john · July 28, 2025, 6:28pm

Video on using the tools

john · September 11, 2025, 1:01pm

Here is one more example where the CALLING AE is given with the -b option and a folder is given. This is handy for sending multiple files in one go and it will iterate through sub folders.

C:\dcm4che-5.23.1\bin>storescu.bat -b CALLINGAE -c DCM4CHEE@ubuntu:104 C:\downloads\dicom-test\

The tool first scans through the folders, including subfolders, and then iterates and sends everything.

“Sent 610 objects (=256.63 MB) in 136.192 s (=1.958 MB/s)”

john · September 18, 2025, 1:37pm

Here is one more example where we modify some dicom tags with tag names and one dicom tag with tag number.

storescu.bat -b CALLINGAE -c DCM4CHEE@ubuntu:104 -s “PatientName=TEST^ANDERSSON” -s “PatientID=12345A” -s “IssuerOfPatientID=1.2.3” -s “00401008=CONFIDENTIAL” – C:\downloads\dicom-test\

If you are using the same test material multiple times you might run into SUID conflicts.
So you could add --uid-suffix .1 so that you change Study UID, Series UID and Instance UID adding to the end. This only works if the original test content you have has UID’s which are not yet at the max length of 64 chars.

storescu.bat -b CALLINGAE -c DCM4CHEE@ubuntu:104 -s “PatientName=TEST^ANDERSSON” -s “PatientID=12345A” -s “IssuerOfPatientID=1.2.3” -s “00401008=CONFIDENTIAL” --uid-suffix .1 – C:\downloads\dicom-test\

Mariana_Sa · October 25, 2025, 11:05pm

Hello everyone,

I’m working on a university project where I need to simulate a basic medical imaging workflow using Orthanc as a DICOM server and dcm4che as a client toolkit.

Currently, I have Orthanc running on port 104, and I would like to simulate another DICOM node (a radiologist’s workstation) communicating with it on port 11112. The goal is to send, query, and retrieve DICOM images — in other words, perform C-STORE, C-FIND, and C-MOVE operations to generate realistic network traffic for later security analysis.

So far, I’ve been able to send images to Orthanc using this command:

./dcm4che/bin/storescu -c ORTHANC@localhost:104 /directory to the images .dcm

However, I’m struggling to understand how to correctly set up the connection for the next steps:

How to configure a second DICOM AE (for example, a workstation on port 11112)?
How to use findscu and movescu properly so that Orthanc responds to C-FIND queries and sends images to that second AE using C-MOVE?

In the project instructions, we are asked to:

Configure Orthanc as a PACS on port 104.
Simulate a professional requesting images from another port (11112).
Use findscu and movescu from dcm4che to perform these interactions.

Could someone please explain (or show an example) of how to correctly configure both sides — Orthanc and the dcm4che tools — so that the C-MOVE operation works between port 104 (Orthanc) and port 11112 (the simulated workstation)?

Thanks in advance for any help or example configuration!

john · October 28, 2025, 6:29pm

Welcome to the community.

Here is an example of using findscu. This is with my test server I used in the video.
And this is a find for all studies in the system.

findscu -c DCM4CHEE@ubuntu:11112 -b WORKSTATION -L STUDY

For you the same would be based on your previous post

findscu -c ORTHANC@localhost:104 -b WORKSTATION -L STUDY

Please also check the readme for further parameters dcm4che/dcm4che-tool/dcm4che-tool-findscu/README.md at master · dcm4che/dcm4che · GitHub

john · October 28, 2025, 6:51pm

Doing the movescu part is a bit more involved.

If you ask chatgpt it will give you quite good guidance on the topic.

The DICOM C-MOVE is a command for saying to the the PACS server please send study X to destination Y.

You will need to configure ORTHANC to have destination Y configured
You can use storescp as the reveiver (WORKSTATION) so the above Y destination
You can use movescu to command ORTHANC to send the study to Y

For the movescu command it will be something like this:

movescu -c DCM4CHEE@ubuntu:11112 --dest WORKSTATION -m "StudyInstanceUID=2.25.295815560780803339366577056398026283395"

For my test below I didn’t actually start storescp to listen for the study so it didn’t actually go anywhere but my PACS server did receive the command.

Mariana_Sa · October 31, 2025, 3:11pm

Hi John,

Thanks a lot for the help earlier, it really helped me get the C-FIND and C-MOVE parts working and I could see everything you said on wireshark!

Now I’m moving to the next part of the project, where I need to implement TLS to compare DICOM communication with and without encryption (for packet analysis and performance comparison).

I have this older example from my professor:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout orthanc.key -out orthanc.crt

But I’m not sure how this fits into Orthanc’s setup today, do I need to modify again the orthanc.json file to enable TLS, or configure it differently using SSL options?

Any short example or explanation on how to properly enable TLS in Orthanc (and connect dcm4che securely) would be really appreciated.

Thanks again!