ConvertSIE

A command-line tool (and Windows GUI) that converts SIE data files into multiple output formats. Written in Zig, it compiles HDF5 from C source as a static library, producing fully self-contained binaries with no runtime dependencies.

Supported Output Formats

Extension	Format	Description
.h5 / .hdf5	HDF5	Hierarchical data format with groups, datasets, and attributes
.txt	ASCII	Human-readable text with metadata tags and tab-separated channel data
.csv	CSV	Comma-separated values with channels as side-by-side tables
.xlsx	Excel	Excel 2007+ spreadsheet with the same layout as CSV
.asc	Vector-style ASCII	Vector CANalyzer-compatible log; filters to raw CAN channels only
.csv (with --can-err)	J1939 CAN Errors	DM1 active-DTC extraction from raw CAN channels, CSV output

Building

# Native build
zig build

# Run
zig build run -- input.sie output.csv

# Run tests
zig build test --summary all

# Cross-compile for all supported platforms
zig build cross

# Run the GUI (Windows only)
zig build run-gui

Usage

CLI

convertsie [--vector-asc | --can-err] <input.sie> <output.[h5|txt|csv|xlsx|asc]>

The output format is normally determined from the file extension. The two force flags override extension dispatch when a CSV/ASCII extension is ambiguous:

• --vector-asc — write a Vector-style CAN ASCII log (.asc). Only raw CAN channels are emitted; other channels are skipped.
• --can-err — extract J1939 DM1 active DTCs from raw CAN channels and write a CSV. Non-CAN files produce no output.

convertsie recording.sie recording.h5                 # HDF5 export
convertsie recording.sie recording.txt                # ASCII text export
convertsie recording.sie recording.csv                # CSV export
convertsie recording.sie recording.xlsx               # Excel export
convertsie recording.sie recording.asc                # Vector-style CAN ASCII
convertsie --can-err recording.sie CANErr-recording.csv   # J1939 DM1 errors

GUI (Windows only)

Run convertsie-gui.exe or zig build run-gui. The GUI provides:

• Drag-and-drop or browse for .sie files
• Six output-format checkboxes: H5, TXT, CSV, XLSX, Vector Style ASCII (CAN only), J1939 CAN Errors (CSV)
• Automatic output filename generation (Vector-<name>.asc, CANErr-<name>.csv, etc.)
• Persisted format selections in %APPDATA%\ConvertSIE\config.bin
• Automatic Windows light/dark theme detection
• Opt-in debug console (bottom-right "debug console" link) with UTF-8 I/O

HDF5 Output Hierarchy

/                           (root — file-level tags as attributes)
├── <test_name>/            (one group per test — test tags as attributes)
│   ├── <channel_name>/     (one group per channel — channel tags as attributes)
│   │   ├── dim0            (chunked f64 dataset — dimension 0 data)
│   │   ├── dim1            (chunked f64 dataset — dimension 1 data)
│   │   └── ...
│   └── <raw_can_channel>/  (raw CAN channels — raw_can="true" attribute)
│       ├── dim0            (chunked f64 dataset — frame timestamps)
│       ├── raw_bytes       (chunked u8 dataset — frames padded to 8 bytes)
│       └── raw_dlc         (chunked u8 dataset — actual frame length per row)
└── ...

All chunked datasets use a 4096-row chunk size and unlimited max size. Raw CAN channels are stored byte-exact rather than as floats; the raw_can_encoding attribute on the channel group documents the layout (currently padded_uint8_dlc).

CSV / XLSX Layout

The CSV/XLSX exporters group time-series channels that share a common sample rate and row count under a single shared time column; everything else (raw CAN, non-time-series, mismatched rates) gets its own block. Blocks are separated by a blank column.

Test Name: <name>
Start Time: <time>

       , Channel_A, Channel_B,    , Channel_C
       , Units_A,   Units_B,      , Units_C
       , Rate_A,    Rate_B,       , Rate_C
Time(S), dim1,      dim1,         , Time(S), dim1
0.02,    10.5,      25.3,         , 0.01,    100.0
0.04,    11.2,      25.4,         , 0.02,    101.5
...

The XLSX export additionally splits across multiple sheets when row count exceeds Excel's 1,048,576-row limit.

Vector-Style ASCII (.asc)

CAN-only export compatible with Vector CANalyzer log readers. Each raw CAN channel becomes a stream of timestamped frame records. Non-CAN channels are skipped entirely; if a file contains no CAN channels, no output file is created.

J1939 CAN Errors (--can-err)

Scans raw CAN channels for J1939 DM1 (PGN 0xFECA) messages and extracts active diagnostic trouble codes (SPN/FMI/OC). Produces a CSV with one row per DTC occurrence. Multi-channel inputs yield a single combined CSV with a channel column. Ported from CanErrFindr-Zig (MIT).

Dependencies

Dependency	Source	Purpose
HDF5 2.1.1	HDFGroup/hdf5 tarball	Hierarchical data format library (compiled from C source)
libsie-zig	efollman/libsie-zig	SIE file parser
raylib-zig	raylib-zig/raylib-zig (lazy, Windows GUI only)	GUI framework with raygui

All dependencies are declared in build.zig.zon and fetched automatically by the Zig build system. The raylib dependency is lazy and only fetched when building the GUI on Windows.

Cross-Compilation

The build system supports cross-compilation for five targets from any host with Zig installed:

Target	CLI Output Path
x86_64-linux	zig-out/linux-x86_64/convertsie
aarch64-linux	zig-out/linux-aarch64/convertsie
x86_64-windows	zig-out/windows-x86_64/convertsie.exe
x86_64-macos	zig-out/macos-x86_64/convertsie
aarch64-macos	zig-out/macos-aarch64/convertsie

The GUI (convertsie-gui.exe) is built automatically alongside the CLI when targeting Windows.

Project Structure

ConvertSIE/
├── build.zig                 Build system configuration
├── build.zig.zon             Package manifest and dependencies
├── hdf5_config/              Custom HDF5 build configuration
│   ├── H5pubconf.h           Cross-platform config header
│   └── H5build_settings.c    Stub for H5build_settings[] symbol
├── src/
│   ├── main.zig              CLI entry point (dispatches by extension / flag)
│   ├── gui.zig               Windows GUI application (raylib/raygui)
│   ├── root.zig              Library module — re-exports all exporters
│   ├── common.zig            Shared SIE reading and data structures
│   ├── hdf5.zig              Zig bindings for the HDF5 C API
│   ├── hdf5_export.zig       HDF5 export implementation
│   ├── ascii_export.zig      ASCII text export implementation
│   ├── csv_export.zig        CSV export implementation
│   ├── xlsx_export.zig       XLSX export implementation (pure Zig)
│   ├── vector_asc_export.zig Vector-style CAN ASCII export
│   ├── can_err.zig           J1939 DM1 DTC parser (ported from CanErrFindr-Zig)
│   └── can_err_export.zig    SIE→CANErr CSV wrapper
├── test/
│   └── data/                 SIE test files
└── docs/
    ├── ARCHITECTURE.md       Module responsibilities and data flow
    ├── HDF5_BUILD.md         How HDF5 is compiled from source
    └── CROSS_COMPILATION.md  Supported targets and platform details

Requirements

• Zig 0.15.2+

Author

Evan Follman

Source Code

https://github.com/efollman/ConvertSIE

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.