CanViewer

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Overview ​

The overview is the first page after a file opens. It sums up the database and lists everything that applies to it as a whole.

The overview of examples/demo.dbcThe overview of examples/demo.dbc

At the top ​

  • The file name, the database's VERSION string and its network comment, if it has them.
  • Five counts: messages, signals, nodes, value tables and attribute definitions.
  • For a file imported from another format, a card that names the format, says that the conversion may be lossy, and links to the problems canmatrix reported (Importing other formats); for a file with several clusters, the choice of cluster.
  • Export, a menu that saves the message and signal lists as CSV or JSON (Exporting).
  • A status line. Either the file parsed without problems, with what was detected, such as 3 J1939 parameter groups and 1 CAN FD frame detected, or a red banner with the number of parse problems, followed by the table of problems (line, reason, content). The table shows the first 200; a note gives the count of the rest.

Messages ​

Every message, sorted by ID, with its ID in hex, name, DLC, number of signals, sender, cycle time (from the GenMsgCycleTime attribute) and the first line of its comment. A tag marks CAN FD frames (FD), J1939 parameter groups (J1939) and other extended frames (EXT). In a J1939 database a PGN column is added. Click a row to open the message.

A database with more than 1000 messages shows them 200 to a page, with buttons for the first, previous, next and last page and the range on screen, such as 1–200 of 5000. The page stays while you look at a message you opened from it.

How CanViewer decides what is CAN FD or J1939:

  • CAN FD: Vector's VFrameFormat attribute decides when it is set, on the message or as the attribute's default (StandardCAN_FD, ExtendedCAN_FD). Without it, a payload of more than 8 bytes means CAN FD.
  • J1939: a message whose VFrameFormat is J1939PG is a J1939 parameter group. A database counts as J1939 when its ProtocolType attribute says so, or when it has such a parameter group; in a J1939 database every extended frame is shown as J1939.

Below the messages ​

  • Attribute definitions (BA_DEF_, with their defaults from BA_DEF_DEF_): name, what they apply to (network, node, message, signal), type, range, default and enum values.
  • Network attributes: attribute values set on the database itself.
  • Not displayed (parsed & skipped): statements CanViewer recognizes but does not model, with how often each occurs, for example NS_ (1×) · BS_ (1×).