bootCAN

A modern, cross-platform CAN/CAN FD network monitoring and analysis tool built with Rust and React.

Version 0.2.0

Features

Core Functionality

• Real-time Message Viewing: Monitor CAN bus traffic with live filtering and search
• Multi-Channel Support: Manage and monitor multiple CAN channels simultaneously
• Message Transmission: Send individual or periodic CAN messages with customizable timing
• Advanced Filtering: Filter messages by ID, data patterns, and custom criteria
• Dual View Modes: Switch between Monitor mode (statistics) and Trace mode (detailed history)
• Signal Plotting & Visualization: Real-time and trace-based plotting of decoded CAN signals with interactive charts

DBC/SYM File Support

• DBC File Parsing: Load and parse standard DBC (Database CAN) files
• SYM File Parsing: Support for SYM format files
• Signal Decoding: Automatic signal extraction and decoding from loaded DBC/SYM files
• Signal Inspector: View decoded signals with physical values, units, and value names

Signal Plotting & Visualization

• Real-time Signal Plotting: Visualize decoded CAN signals in real-time with live updating charts
• Trace File Plotting: Import and plot signals from TRC/CSV trace files with fast parallel processing
• Multi-Signal Support: Plot up to 10 signals simultaneously with distinct colors
• Interactive Charts: Zoom, pan, and cursor-based value inspection with time interpolation
• Time Window Controls: Adjustable time windows (10s, 20s, 30s, 60s, 5min, 10min, All)
• Signal Selection: Searchable multi-select signal picker with channel filtering
• Performance Optimized: Parallel processing for fast trace file loading and signal decoding

Trace Management

• Trace Logging: Record CAN traffic to CSV or TRC format files
• Trace Playback: Load and replay recorded trace files with adjustable playback speed
• Trace Import: Fast import of large trace files (TRC/CSV) with progress indicators
• CSV Export: Export message traces to CSV format for analysis
• Project Save/Load: Save and restore complete project configurations

Interface Support

• SocketCAN (Linux): Native support for Linux SocketCAN interfaces
• PCAN USB (Windows/macOS): Support for PEAK PCAN USB devices
• Virtual CAN: Built-in virtual CAN interface for testing and development

Statistics & Monitoring

• Real-time Bus Statistics: Monitor bus load, message counts, and cycle times
• Per-Channel Metrics: Individual statistics for each CAN channel
• Error Monitoring: Track bus errors and connection status
• Message Counters: View message frequency and cycle time statistics

Technology Stack

• Backend: Rust with Tauri 2.0
• Frontend: React 18 + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS
• State Management: Zustand
• Charting: uPlot (lightweight, high-performance canvas-based charts)
• Parallel Processing: Rayon (Rust) for multi-threaded signal decoding and file parsing
• CAN Interfaces: SocketCAN (Linux), PCAN-Basic API (Windows/macOS), Virtual CAN
• File Formats: DBC, SYM, CSV, TRC

Prerequisites

All Platforms

• Node.js 18+ and pnpm
• Rust 1.70+

Linux (SocketCAN)

# Install can-utils for testing
sudo apt install can-utils

# Create a virtual CAN interface for testing
sudo modprobe vcan
sudo ip link add dev vcan0 type vcan
sudo ip link set up vcan0

Windows/macOS (PCAN)

• Install PCAN-Basic API for Windows
• Install PCBUSB for macOS

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd bootCAN

# Install frontend dependencies
pnpm install

# Run in development mode
pnpm tauri dev

# Build for production
pnpm tauri build

Project Structure

bootCAN/
├── src/                          # React frontend
│   ├── components/               # UI components
│   │   ├── ChannelManager.tsx    # Multi-channel management
│   │   ├── DbcManager.tsx       # DBC/SYM file management
│   │   ├── FilterPanel.tsx      # Advanced filtering
│   │   ├── MessageViewer.tsx    # Message display and decoding
│   │   ├── PlotPanel.tsx        # Signal plotting and visualization
│   │   ├── SignalInspector.tsx  # Signal decoding viewer
│   │   ├── SignalSelector.tsx   # Signal selection for plotting
│   │   ├── TraceManager.tsx     # Trace logging and playback
│   │   ├── TransmitPanel.tsx    # Message transmission
│   │   └── Toolbar.tsx          # Main toolbar controls
│   ├── stores/                   # Zustand state management
│   │   └── canStore.ts          # Main application state
│   └── App.tsx                   # Main application component
├── src-tauri/                    # Rust backend
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── core/                 # Core CAN logic
│   │   │   ├── dbc/             # DBC/SYM parsing
│   │   │   │   ├── parser.rs    # DBC file parser
│   │   │   │   ├── sym_parser.rs # SYM file parser
│   │   │   │   └── models.rs    # Data models
│   │   │   ├── trace_logger.rs   # Trace file logging
│   │   │   ├── trace_player.rs  # Trace file playback (with parallel parsing)
│   │   │   ├── bus_stats.rs     # Bus statistics
│   │   │   └── message.rs       # CAN message models
│   │   ├── hal/                 # Hardware abstraction layer
│   │   │   ├── socketcan.rs     # SocketCAN implementation
│   │   │   ├── pcan.rs          # PCAN implementation
│   │   │   ├── virtual_can.rs   # Virtual CAN implementation
│   │   │   └── traits.rs        # Interface traits
│   │   └── commands.rs          # Tauri IPC commands (with batch decoding)
│   └── Cargo.toml
├── package.json
└── README.md

Usage

Getting Started

1. Add a Channel: Click "Add" in the Channel Manager to create a new CAN channel
2. Select Interface: Choose a CAN interface (SocketCAN, PCAN, or Virtual CAN)
3. Configure Bitrate: Set the CAN bus bitrate (125k, 250k, 500k, 1M)
4. Load DBC/SYM: Load a DBC or SYM file for the channel to enable signal decoding
5. Connect: Click "Connect" to start monitoring the CAN bus

Monitoring Messages

• View Messages: Messages appear in real-time in the Message Viewer
• Filter Messages: Use the Filter Panel to filter by ID, data patterns, or custom criteria
• Search: Use the search box to quickly find messages by ID
• View Modes: Switch between Monitor mode (statistics) and Trace mode (full history)
• Pause/Resume: Pause message capture to inspect specific messages

Working with DBC/SYM Files

1. Load DBC/SYM: Click "Load" in the DBC Manager or in a channel's DBC section
2. Select File: Choose a .dbc or .sym file
3. View Decoded Signals: Select a message in the Message Viewer to see decoded signals
4. Signal Inspector: The right panel shows physical values, units, and value names

Transmitting Messages

1. Open Transmit Panel: Use the right sidebar Transmit Panel
2. Configure Message: Set ID, DLC, data bytes, and transmission type
3. Send: Click "Send" for one-time transmission or "Start Periodic" for repeated messages
4. Monitor: Transmitted messages appear in the Message Viewer with "TX" direction

Signal Plotting

Real-time Plotting:

1. Switch to the Plot tab in the toolbar
2. Click "Add Signal" to open the signal selector
3. Search and select signals to plot (multi-select with checkboxes)
4. Signals will plot in real-time as messages arrive
5. Use controls to pause, clear data, or adjust time window

Trace File Plotting:

1. Switch to the Plot tab
2. Load DBC/SYM files for the channels used in the trace
3. Select signals to plot using "Add Signal"
4. Click "Import Trace" and select a TRC or CSV file
5. Progress bars show file loading and signal decoding progress
6. Chart displays all selected signals with interactive cursor

Plot Controls:

• Time Window: Adjust view window (10s, 20s, 30s, 60s, 5min, 10min, All)
• Pause/Resume: Pause real-time updates to inspect data
• Clear Data: Clear all plotted data
• Cursor: Hover to see interpolated values at any time point

Trace Management

Logging:

1. Click "Start Logging" in the Trace Manager
2. Choose file format (CSV or TRC) and location
3. Messages are recorded to the file
4. Click "Stop Logging" to finish

Playback:

1. Click "Load Trace" to select a recorded trace file
2. Use playback controls (Play, Pause, Stop)
3. Adjust playback speed with the speed slider
4. Monitor playback progress in the status display

Exporting Data

• Export CSV: Click "Export CSV" in the toolbar to export current messages
• Save Project: Use "Save Project" to save channel configurations and loaded DBC files
• Load Project: Use "Load Project" to restore a saved project

Development

Running Tests

# Rust backend tests
cd src-tauri
cargo test

# Frontend linting
pnpm lint

Building for Release

The project includes a build script to generate platform-specific releases:

# Build for current platform (macOS on Mac, Windows on Windows)
npm run build:release
# or
./build.sh

# Build for macOS (generates .dmg for both Intel and Apple Silicon)
npm run build:macos
# or
./build.sh macos

# Build for Windows (generates .exe/.msi)
npm run build:windows
# or
./build.sh windows

# Build for all platforms (macOS + Windows)
npm run build:all
# or
./build.sh all

Built releases will be placed in the releases/ directory:

• macOS: .dmg files for both Intel (x86_64) and Apple Silicon (aarch64)
• Windows: .exe installer and .msi package

Note: Cross-compiling Windows builds from macOS requires:

rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

For best results, build Windows releases on a Windows machine or use CI/CD.

Supported Hardware

Interface	Platform	Status
Virtual CAN	All	✅ Full support
SocketCAN	Linux	✅ Full support
PCAN USB	Windows	✅ Full support (requires PCAN-Basic)
PCAN USB	macOS	✅ Full support (requires PCBUSB)

File Format Support

Format	Type	Status
DBC	Database CAN	✅ Full support
SYM	Symbol file	✅ Full support
CSV	Trace export/import	✅ Full support
TRC	Trace file	✅ Full support (logging and playback)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Roadmap

Planned Features

• Python scripting engine
• UDS diagnostics module
• MF4 (MDF) file format support
• Advanced signal analysis tools (FFT, statistics, etc.)
• Custom message templates
• Export plots to image/PDF
• Signal comparison and diff tools

Completed Features

• DBC file parsing and signal decoding
• SYM file format support
• Trace file import/export (CSV, TRC)
• Trace playback with speed control
• Multi-channel support
• Project save/load
• Real-time bus statistics
• Advanced filtering
• Signal plotting and visualization (v0.2.0)
  • Real-time signal plotting
  • Trace file plotting with parallel processing
  • Multi-signal support with interactive charts
  • Time window controls and cursor-based inspection