RigolWFM 1.5.0

Read, parse, and convert oscilloscope waveform files

by Scott Prahl

A utility to process oscilloscope waveform files

This project started as a resource for interpreting the proprietary .wfm files created by Rigol oscilloscopes. It now also includes parsers for Tektronix, LeCroy, Agilent / Keysight, Siglent, Yokogawa, and Rohde & Schwarz waveform files. Open source tools that can parse or convert these binary oscilloscope formats are often balkanized: each program tends to support a single oscilloscope group. I have gathered a bunch together here.

This project leverages the domain specific language at <https://doc.kaitai.io> to describe binary files. Once a format has been described in this text form, parsers can be generated for a wide range of languages.

Installation

You can install locally using pip:

pip install RigolWFM

or conda:

conda install -c conda-forge RigolWFM

or just open <https://scottprahl.github.io/RigolWFM/> and try the web version.

Usage

Once RigolWFM is installed, you can plot signals from supported waveform files by:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from RigolWFM import Wfm

w = Wfm.from_file("example.wfm")
w.plot()
plt.show()

Wfm.from_file() will autodetect the file family for supported formats, so the same call works for Rigol .wfm / .bin files, Tektronix .wfm / .isf files, LeCroy .trc files, Agilent / Keysight AGxx .bin files, supported Siglent .bin revisions, Yokogawa .wfm files, and Rohde & Schwarz RTP XML .bin files with companion .Wfm.bin payloads.

Alternatively, wfmconvert can be used from the command line. For example, the following should convert all the DS1000E files in the current directory to the .csv format:

prompt> wfmconvert csv *.wfm

If you just wanted to convert channel 1 from a single file to .csv then:

prompt> wfmconvert --channel 1 csv DS1102E.wfm

If you wanted to a signal .wav file using the second channel waveform (for use with LTspice) then:

prompt> wfmconvert --channel 2 wav *.wfm

If you want to create a .wav file with channels one and four as signals (using the default auto scaling for Audacity or Sigrok Pulseview):

prompt> wfmconvert --channel 14 wav *.wfm

The project also includes a browser-based viewer at <https://scottprahl.github.io/RigolWFM/>. The current web app supports Rigol .wfm / .bin files, Tektronix .wfm / .isf files, LeCroy .trc files, Agilent / Keysight AGxx .bin files, Rohde & Schwarz RTP XML .bin files plus their companion .Wfm.bin payloads, and supported Siglent .bin revisions.

Status

There are binary file descriptions and normalized adapters for waveform files created by the following oscilloscopes. Most of these work directly through Wfm.from_file(); rows with special limitations are called out in the notes.

Family	Models	Format	Notes
Rigol DS1000B	DS1074/1104/ 1204B	.wfm	tested
Rigol DS1000C	DS1042/1102/ 1202CA	.wfm	tested (limited files)
Rigol DS1000D	DS1052/1102D	.wfm	tested (limited files)
Rigol DS1000E	DS1052/1102E	.wfm	tested
Rigol DS1000Z	DS1054Z, MSO1054Z, etc.	.wfm	tested
Rigol DS2000	DS2072A, MSO2102A, etc.	.wfm	tested
Rigol DS4000	DS4012-DS4054, MSO4012-MSO4054	.wfm	tested
Rigol DS6000	DS6062-DS6104	.wfm	untested
Rigol MSO5000	MSO5354, etc.	.bin	tested
Rigol MSO7000 / MSO8000	DS7000, MSO7000, MSO8000, DS8000	.bin	tested
Rigol DHO800 / DHO1000	DHO800, DHO1000	.bin .wfm	tested; calibrated float32 samples, official .bin and proprietary .wfm support
Tektronix WFM	modern DPO/DSA families	.wfm	supports WFM#001/WFM#002/WFM#003; legacy LLWFM also supported
Tektronix ISF	many Tek scopes	.isf	tested
LeCroy	many WaveRunner/ WaveSurfer/etc.	.trc	tested; handles SCPI-prefixed WAVEDESC files
Agilent / Keysight	InfiniiVision / Infiniium	.bin	supports AG01/AG03/AG10 analog captures; low-level parser preserves segments and multi-buffer metadata
Rohde & Schwarz RTP export	RTP / RTO / RTM families	.bin + .Wfm.bin	normalized single-acquisition analog exports; history / multi-acquisition captures reject explicitly
Siglent	documented .bin families	.bin	supports documented V0.1-V6 revisions; old platform files are detectable via low-level parsers but not normalized yet
Yokogawa	ASCII-header waveform exports	.wfm	tested single-file import path

Resources

This has been a bit of an adventure. In the process of nailing down the basic formats, I have gleaned information from a wide range of projects started by others.

• Shein’s <https://sourceforge.net/projects/wfmreader>

• Wagenaars’s <https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/18999-read-binary-rigol-waveforms>

• Steele’s <http://nsweb.tn.tudelft.nl/~gsteele/rigol2dat>

• Blaicher’s <https://github.com/mabl/pyRigolWFM>

• Szkutnik’s <https://github.com/michal-szkutnik/pyRigolWfm1000Z>

• Cat-Ion’s <https://github.com/Cat-Ion/rigol-ds4000-wfm>

• Šolc’s <https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/archives/2019/08/quick_and_ugly_wfm_data_export_for_rigol_ds2072a/>

• Contributions from <http://www.hakasoft.com.au/wfm_viewer>

• Rigol’s documentation of the 1000E, 1000Z, 2000, and 6000 file formats.

• Rigol’s documentation of the .bin formats for the 1000, 5000, and 8000

• Lathe’s <https://github.com/Lathe26/WFM_for_Rigol_DHO800_900>

• Nezarati’s <https://nezarati.github.io/waveform-viewer/index.html>

• Wavebin’s <https://github.com/eyalroz/wavebin> Agilent / Keysight parsers and samples

• Agilent / Keysight .bin reference readers and programming guides

• Siglent’s waveform format PDF and vendor reference parsers

• SMASH toolbox vendor importers for Tektronix, LeCroy, and Yokogawa formats

License

BSD 3-clause – see the file LICENSE for details.