Convert AIA / ANDI netCDF chromatograms (.cdf) to CSV (Beta)

Read AIA chromatograms and ANDI-MS files from any chromatography software: signal, peak table and mass spectra as CSV and Excel.

Opens: CH, UV, MS, .D (ZIP), DX, LCD, GCD, QGD, .raw (ZIP), CDF
Saves: CSV, XLSX

Convert

Chromatography data

Choose files… or drop them here

up to 200 MB each, 50 files max

Add more files

Agilent .ch, .uv or .ms files or a .D folder packed as .zip (ChemStation, OpenLab or MassHunter), an OpenLab CDS .dx file, Shimadzu .lcd, .gcd or .qgd files, a Waters .raw folder packed as .zip, or AIA / ANDI .cdf files. Several files or runs are converted together.

Options

Number format

Pick the comma version if your Excel uses a decimal comma (most of Europe).

DAD / PDA wavelengths (nm)

Chromatograms to extract from diode-array spectra, e.g. 254, 280. Empty: the wavelengths of the file's own signals, else 210, 230, 254 and 280 nm.

More options

Bandwidth for chosen wavelengths (nm)

Absorbance is averaged over wavelength ± half this width, like a DAD signal setting “Sig=254,4”. 0 takes the nearest stored wavelength.

Your files are deleted after processing.

Tell us how this tool could be better

AIA files, also called ANDI or netCDF chromatograms, are the exchange format that ChemStation, OpenLab, Empower, LabSolutions, Chromeleon and most other chromatography software can export. The .cdf file is binary netCDF, so it needs a programming library to open. This page reads it directly and gives you the chromatogram and its peak table as CSV and Excel.

How to convert a .cdf file

Upload one or more .cdf files, or a ZIP of them.
Choose the number format: decimal point with commas between columns, or decimal comma with semicolons for Excel in most European languages.
Download the CSV, the peak table and the Excel workbook with a chart.

What you get from an AIA chromatogram

The detector signal as a CSV with retention time in minutes and the response in the unit the file declares, with the detector name in the header.
The peak table when the file holds integration results: retention time, start and end, width, area, area %, height, amount, peak name, baseline and peak codes, with times in minutes.
Sample information: sample name and ID, operator, injection date, method, detector, injection volume and the software that wrote the file, as stored.

What you get from an ANDI-MS file

The total ion chromatogram as stored, with the base peak of every scan.
Every scan as a long table of scan number, time, m/z and intensity.
Instrument details: ionisation, polarity, inlet, detector and manufacturer where the file names them.

How the numbers were checked

The reader follows the netCDF classic specification and was compared with the reference netCDF-C library on the ANDI project's test files and other AIA exports: every variable of 69 files reads the same. The files cover software from 1985 to 2024 (HP, Varian, Dionex, PE Nelson, Waters, EZChrom, OpenLab) and mass spectra of Finnigan, Extrel, VG and HP instruments.

Pitfalls

Some writers declare more points per scan than the scan holds, so each scan runs into the next. Each scan is then read up to the start of the next one, with a note.
netCDF-4 files (HDF5 inside) are not AIA files; export the run again as AIA / ANDI.
Vendors fill the optional fields differently (dates, detector names); they are shown as stored.

More about what this tool reads and writes: Chromatography Data Converter (Agilent, Shimadzu, Waters, AIA).