Published by Rolf on 02 Apr 2009 at 03:37 pm
Reading CT scans with eFilmLT.exe on Vista
A bit off-topic but I thought I’d share. A friend of mine had this CT scan on CD and was having trouble reading it on his PC (sometimes it worked, sometimes not). And simply copying it to his hard disk enabled it unreadable. So I offered to debug why, and lo and behold, a quick Google search shows that lots of other people have reported similar problems (e.g., see here).
It seems that this proprietary reader (eFilmLT.exe), made by Merge Software, looks for a valid binary “DICOMDIR” file that points to the metadata for the particular scan images on the CD (e.g., the patient name, date taken, image filenames, etc.). Why this isn’t a human-readable format like XML, I have no idea.
Anyway, if you have a set of images that you can’t read:
- copy them to your hard disk
- download the attached zipfile, which contains all the relevant reader files (e.g. ,eFilmLT.exe, associated DLLs, “Profiles” directory, and configuration files). All these are (I think) independent of the particular CT scan on a given CD. I have *not* included “DICOMDIR” here by design.
- Overwrite your files with the contents of this zipfile.
Then try to launch the new eFilmLT.exe. It should pick up your DICOMDIR and now you can read your CT scans. This has been tested on Vista, probably XP works as well. Good luck.
Download: efilmbinaries.zip
RHK on 03 Apr 2009 at 2:01 am #
This solved the problem. Thanks.
Dariusz Gunia on 03 Apr 2009 at 6:33 pm #
Hi,
Thanks for sharing ! Your solution works perfect on Vista
Renee Barr on 11 Apr 2009 at 5:07 pm #
Thanks so much for posting this – completely solved my problem viewing the files! I appreciate being able to find this link online!
helped me out too on 17 Apr 2009 at 8:50 pm #
THank you! your files resolved the problem I was having as well. I can now review my MRI information. Now, if only there was a way for me to download the knowledge about what the images are supposed to be telling me….
THANK YOU!
Patrick on 17 Apr 2009 at 10:47 pm #
This is useful!
Thank you
but one question.
How do i overwrite?
Rolf on 17 Apr 2009 at 11:50 pm #
Just unzip the files in the zipfile and drag them into the eFilm directory. Then relaunch eFilm.exe and it should work.
Dylin on 21 Apr 2009 at 2:03 pm #
Thanks for your help, very much appreciated!!!
Maybe the hospital should give you a disk that works in the first place though, don’t know how they can charge for something that doesn’t work????
Chad on 29 Apr 2009 at 4:36 am #
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE TO VMWARE INTO XP PRO FOREVER TO BE ABLE TO VIEW MY OWN SCANS!
David on 05 May 2009 at 12:50 am #
This worked perfect! Thank you for your help!
Allen on 11 May 2009 at 3:15 am #
Is your zip file still a good file? I am not able to open or get anything out of it.
Thanks,
Allen
jennafer on 20 May 2009 at 11:53 am #
OMG thank you so much for this… I spent about 6 hours trying to get this stupid cd from my doctor to open on my computer…. what would we do without people like you… ??????
Heidi on 29 May 2009 at 9:53 pm #
Thank you so much for posting this! You are a lifesaver! Now if I can only figure out how to read these images . . .
D on 15 Jun 2009 at 7:39 pm #
Thanks. This helped me too, but I’m trying to do 3D volume rendering and it says there is no memory available. How to make this work?
noah on 17 Jun 2009 at 7:19 pm #
Worked for me too! Thanks!!
Lynne on 22 Jun 2009 at 11:46 pm #
It worked! Thank you.
Waspman on 24 Jun 2009 at 9:28 am #
Thank you! it worked perfectly!
broken guy on 27 Jul 2009 at 8:26 pm #
Thank you very much!! This solved my problem too. Now I’m able to view my pics
Chad on 29 Jul 2009 at 9:43 pm #
I have tried everything and I still can’t read the images from the disc or the hard drive.
clif on 08 Aug 2009 at 9:21 pm #
Thanks, I did exactly as you said and was able to view both my shoulder images and knee images. now, like others, if I could only read CT SCANS everything would be perfect. still its very interesting to view but prior to this point, I got nothing.
stillot on 09 Aug 2009 at 10:15 pm #
Thank you for this. It works!
Lisa on 15 Aug 2009 at 5:13 am #
I have NO idea what you mean by \overwriting\…. I’m really confused.
Rob on 15 Aug 2009 at 11:03 am #
I leave a message in the dutch language that it worked:
Deze methode werkt perfect bij CD’s van een CT scan gemaakt in het AMC (Amsterdams Medisch Centrum):
(translation / vertaling):
Kopieer de CD naar een map op de harde schijf en verwijder daarna de CD uit de computer.
Download het zip bestand en unzip de bestanden van het zipbestand in dezelfde map op de harde schijf waarin je de CD hebt gekopieerd (sommige bestanden zullen worden overschreven, maar niet JOUW foto’s!, dus wees niet bang – bovendien heb je ze nog op de CD.)
Start in die map op de harde schijf efilmlt.exe
en zie daar…: jouw foto’s.
elle on 04 Sep 2009 at 2:44 am #
Thanks so much. This worked perfectly.
Noah on 06 Oct 2009 at 10:00 pm #
Worked perfectly!! Thanks
Wendy on 07 Oct 2009 at 4:13 am #
You absolutely ROCK! I was going crazy for an hour trying to look at xrays w/ Vista…all kinds of programs wanted to sell me things…you actually solved the problem!
Worked Perfectl!! You’re the best! Thanks
Wendy on 07 Oct 2009 at 4:13 am #
You ROCK! this worked perfectly! I’ve been struggling for an hour to look at xrays on vista…nothing worked till this…thank you!
Glenn Counsell on 07 Oct 2009 at 5:30 pm #
Rolf
Excellent – that’s great. Works like a treat! Thank you for taking the time to sort this out.
Sunshine on 13 Oct 2009 at 5:02 pm #
Worked perfect. Did not have to copy my files from CD to hard disk. Once zip file had been extracted, I inserted my MRI disk and the home screen populated. Those images are so good. Thank you SO much
osprey on 06 Nov 2009 at 1:04 am #
Great assistance. You the man!!
thanks
osprey
Karin on 20 Nov 2009 at 9:28 pm #
Thanks! Now the program works, but there is no patient information coming up in the start page, so I can’t pick any file to open, any idea? The CD worked perfectly on XP, but not on Vista…..
Todd on 01 Dec 2009 at 12:26 pm #
This worked great in Vista 64bit. Thanks!!!
joseph on 05 Dec 2009 at 9:14 pm #
I have downloaded the zip file and copy the CD to my Vista hrad drive. May I ask what is the next step to overwrite or unzip the file?
Thanks
Gilbert on 11 Dec 2009 at 9:40 am #
Very nice! Works on Windows7 Professional 64bit!
Greetings from Dresden, Germany.
RJG on 12 Dec 2009 at 12:53 am #
You rock. It was buggy before, but now I can actually view it. Thanks so much!
RJG on 12 Dec 2009 at 12:53 am #
Thanks so much! I can actually see it now! You rock.
curtis on 20 Dec 2009 at 1:11 am #
think i needed that so much
Dave on 21 Dec 2009 at 10:53 pm #
Worked perfect, very valuable and appreciate being able to look at my scan. Thank You!
HALORIDGE on 24 Dec 2009 at 2:12 am #
Many thanks!!! our normal vet uses a different system for our dogs minivue which works great, kinda disappointed in this software making itr virtually unreadable for many people at home….
Robin on 08 Jan 2010 at 12:15 am #
The zip file worked! Wow – thanks so much
Kell Larsen on 18 Jan 2010 at 8:37 am #
Thank you for making this work on Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit.
Kell
Randers Denmark
Karli-Rae on 12 Feb 2010 at 1:04 am #
Hey there! Do you know of how I can do this on an Intel-based Mac? Thanks!
Vahe Almoyan on 04 Mar 2010 at 10:28 am #
Thank You very very much for helping.
Barry on 13 Mar 2010 at 4:11 pm #
Thank you V E R Y much !!! At last we’re able to veiw the files on Vista
Dave B on 16 Mar 2010 at 7:11 pm #
Thanks.
This worked on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.
Had to run as administrator and install the MS XML 4.0 parser.
Lisa B. on 24 Jul 2010 at 1:17 am #
It worked! Thank you so much for your help! Was able to look at MRI of my head! Amazing stuff!
Travis on 30 Jul 2010 at 10:24 pm #
Thanks, worked on windows 7 as well