OpenTFRaw
Read Thermo Fisher RAW files in Rust and Python.
A pure-Rust parser for Thermo Fisher's proprietary
.raw mass-spectrometry
format, reverse-engineered without the vendor SDK. Covers format
versions 8 through 66 - from the LCQ Classic (mid-1990s) through the
Orbitrap Astral (2023).
Docs
Format spec, API reference, and quickstart.
Source
Apache-2.0 on GitHub.
What is the RAW format?
Thermo Fisher's .raw format is the native
acquisition format for Xcalibur-based instruments - Orbitrap, LTQ, TSQ, and related
lines. The format is closed and undocumented by the vendor; the only supported access
path is their proprietary SDK (Windows-only DLL). OpenTFRaw reconstructs the on-disk
layout from first principles: file header, audit log, sample info, run header,
scan event hierarchy, compressed peak packets, and the scan index.
Coverage
Validated against a 27-file corpus spanning every major instrument family: LCQ, LTQ, Orbitrap Exploris, Orbitrap Astral, Q Exactive, TSQ Altis, and others. Extracts mass spectra (profile and centroid), chromatograms, scan filter strings, and instrument metadata.