The following troubleshooting methods are available in DocScanFx and discussed below.  Note that any INI file changes require a restart of DocScanFx.




Ping / DICOM Echo Sources

You can check ping and DICOM echo status to a mode's source and destination DICOM settings by following the steps below:

  1. Choose a mode from the DocScanFx Mode selection screen, but don't click "Select".
  2. Left click the mouse on the word "Mode" in the upper left corner.
  3. Watch the text window below the mode list for:
    • Ping results to the IP address of the DICOM source
    • DICOM echo results to the IP address of the DICOM source
    • Ping results to the IP address of the DICOM destination
    • DICOM echo results to the IP address of the DICOM destination





Add Study Instance UID to Exam Details Window

You can add the Study Instance UID  to the exam details for by setting the value below in either the COMMON or mode specific section of your INI file.


ShowSiuidInInfoBox=True




Anonymous Mode

Turning on anonymous mode in DocScanFx allows you to work in DocScanFx with support or peers and not show any real patient / exam data.  In Anonymous mode you can query your PACS archive or modality worklist, but before the application displays or logs the returned data the patient name, date of birth, medical record number, accession number, Study Instance UID, etc.are replaced with fake information.  Add this option to the COMMON section of your INI file to turn on Anonymous mode:


[COMMON]
AnonymizeQueries=True





Debug Logging to File

A debug log file can be generated by turning on this option in the COMMON section of your INI file:

WriteDebugLog=True


The debug file will be written to the logged in users TEMP folder with a filename like:   

DocScan_Debug_YYYYMMDD.txt   (where YYYYMMDD is replaced with the current date values)


Note that the debug files remain in the TEMP folder until manually deleted or the user's TEMP folder is emptied.


Once debugging is turned on you can quickly get to the log file by right clicking on the ABOUT button and choosing "Open debug file":




Debug Logging to Third Party Real Time View Tool - Baretail

Note: Starting in DocScanFx version 3.10.01 manually adding BareTail is not necessary as it is included with the installed application.


If you want to watch the debug file update in real time for better troubleshooting you can add the third party log viewer called "Baretail".  Just go to https://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/ and download the free version (or if you really like it, buy a licensed copy and support this developer).  The download is a single file named baretail.exe which you need to save in a folder you create named "baretail" in your DocScanFx\Resources folder.


Now when you right click your mouse on ABOUT and choose to open the debug file, Baretail will run and and show updates automatically as new data is added to the file.  In addition, you can setup key words that baretail will highlight with colors of your choice so you can find details better:





Copy DICOM query messages to the clipboard

Setting the INI values below will cause the raw output of the DICOM archive/MWL query to be copied to your clipboard.  This allows easy pasting into a text viewing program of your choice (like Notepad++).  You can then use this output to help troubleshoot DICOM communications and to help support in recreating communications issues as described in the next section.  Note that if you have Anonymous mode turned on this raw output is modified to have the fake generated values instead of the original data.


[COMMON]
CopyDicomQueryToClipboard=True
CopyDicomSendToClipboard=True



Using a Text File Query as a DICOM Source

If you save the raw DICOM query output from the clipboard to a text file after you've used the CopyDicomQueryToClipboard  or  CopyDicomSendToClipboard options you can create a new entry in the DICOM section of your INI file pointing to this query file.  Then when you use this DICOM source in a mode, that text file will be used instead of an actual query.  Be sure to update the mode's settings in the INI file to use this new DICOM entry as its query source (Example: QuerySource=Worklist2).  The format of the entry is:


Entry Name = Worklist or Archive | Path to the query text file


Examples:

[Dicom]
Archive2=Archive|c:\ARCquery.txt
Worklist2=Worklist|c:\MWLquery.txt


This is extremely useful for configuring DocScanFx when no PACS server is available.  In addition, if you've set AnonymizeQueries=True then the saved text file will not contain PHI.  This makes a great troubleshooting tool because you can submit this file to support and they can recreate your exact query scenario for better troubleshooting.



Using a Folder as a DICOM Send Destination

Instead of sending the DICOM images to a PACS archive server you can create a DICOM entry pointing to a folder on your hard drive and the created files will be stored there instead.  Be sure to update the mode's settings in the INI file to use this new DICOM entry as its send destination (Example: StoreArchive=Archive6).  The format of the entry is:


Entry Name = Archive | Path to the folder


Example:

[Dicom]
Archive6=Archive|C:\DICOM_Output


Use this option if you need to troubleshoot the generated DICOM files on your computer without the files being stored to a PACS archive.



Adding a Simple Third Party DICOM Image and Tag Viewer

If you'd like to have a  DICOM image viewer show the DocScanFx generated images you can use the "Third Party Software Launch" option described in the "DocScan INI Settings v3.x.x.x.pdf" file in your DocScanFx\Resources folder.  Here are the steps:

  1. Download the Portable Zip Package of "mDicom" at http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html
  2. Unzip this somewhere you like.  For the example here the files have been saved to C:\Program Files (x86)\DocScanFx\Resources\mDicom so that if you were to browse to this folder you would see the mDicom.exe file there.
  3. Add the code below either the COMMON section or a specific mode's section of your DocScan.INI file:


PostStoreRunThirdPartyApp=C:\Program Files (x86)\DocScanFx\Resources\mDicom.exe
PostStoreRunThirdPartyAppArgs="{{DicomImageFolder}}\" /scan
PostStoreRunThirdPartyAppWait=True


After DocScanFx has completed storing the DICOM files to the mode's destination, mDICOM will be launched and display the DICOM files for viewing or for tag analysis.  Note that the {{DicomImageFolder}} macro value points to the temp location that DocScanFx uses for DICOM file creation.

 


Mapping DICOM Query Tags to Alternative Values

Sometimes a PACS archive or modality worklist query will return DICOM tag values in fields where DocScanFx is expecting to find in other locations.  This results in DocScanFx displaying odd information in the Search Results window.  To fix this you can map alternative DICOM tags for DocScanFx to find the correct information in.  A complete list of INI settings is available if you search for "MWLDicomTag" or "ArchiveDicomTag" in the "DocScan INI Settings v3.x.x.x.pdf" file in your DocScanFx\Resources installation folder.  Each of these values can either be set in your COMMON section or a mode specific section of your INI file.  You should only use this mapping function once you've used other troubleshooting methods to determine exactly what mapping needs to take place.


Here is an example that would change the normal tag where a modality worklist query exam data would be found from tag (0040,0002) to (0040,0004).  This is just an example.


MWLDicomTagExamDate=(0040,0004)