Knowledge base · Tools
OTDR viewer download: what people install, and when you don't have to
To look at a .sor you do not need to install anything. This page opens by link and reads files from EXFO, VIAVI, Anritsu, Yokogawa and other instruments. Below is what people usually download, which of it is free, and when a program on your disk really is the answer.
Open a file with nothing installed
We are not talking you out of vendor software: it does work a browser does not. This page names what each one does.
By Vera (new to the field) ·
What people usually download
People usually take one of three routes, and they do not cost the same.
The instrument maker's software
FastReporter from EXFO, TraceView from Anritsu, AQ7932 from Yokogawa, FiberTrace from VIAVI, LinkWare from Fluke, TRM from AFL. Some of it is free, with an account or bundled with the instrument. What they share: Windows, an installer, and they understand their own brand's files best.
General-purpose viewers
Programs that open other makers' formats: SORTraceViewer, for instance, reads .msor, .csor and .trc. Windows again, an installer again; and for several of them a free edition sits next to a paid one.
A browser
Nothing installed, no admin rights, any system: macOS, Windows, Linux, a tablet, a phone. It is what you are reading on now.
When a program on your disk really is the answer
You need an installed program in three cases. Working with no network: out in the field with no signal, an installed program opens the file and a page does not. The instrument's own features beyond the standard: proprietary reports and settings only that vendor's software knows about. And scheduled batch processing of hundreds of files. Everything else (open, look, measure, correct, save) happens here and needs no installer.
Installing it as an app
There is still nothing to download, but you can install the app from your browser. It then opens in its own window without an address bar, with an icon on the taskbar, in the Dock or on your phone's home screen. Open otdrmaster.com/app, then follow your browser:
- Chrome or Edge on a computer: the install icon at the right end of the address bar. Once it is installed, you can open a trace straight from Explorer or Finder with Open with → OTDR Master.
- Chrome on Android: menu → Install app, or Add to Home screen.
- Safari on iPhone and iPad: the Share button → Add to Home Screen.
- Safari on a Mac: File → Add to Dock.
It is the same page you get in the browser. It still needs a network, and it updates itself, so there is never a new version to install. Firefox on a computer does not offer installation.
A folder of traces: the archive can stay packed
A drum or a span usually arrives as one .zip. You do not have to take it apart: drop the archive as it is and the traces from it go into the file list. .7z and .rar read the same way. On a phone there is no other route, because Android will not unpack an archive without a separate app.
The archive has limits of its own. Each trace inside has to fit in 3 MB, and so does the archive itself: 3 MB is what we accept for any file. An archive inside the archive is unpacked too, down to three levels. An entry our reader cannot handle is skipped, and the rest of the traces in that archive still open. An archive under a password does not open at all.
OTDR viewer free download: what each program is
The seven programs people go for when somebody else's measurement has to be opened.
| Program | Whose files it reads | What of that opens here |
|---|---|---|
| EXFO FastReporter | .trc, .sor and bidirectional .bdr from the FTB platforms | All three; in a .bdr each fibre arrives as two traces |
| VIAVI FiberTrace 2, FiberCable | .sor, .msor and .csor from the MTS and T-BERD platforms | .sor and .msor; .csor is waiting for a real file |
| Anritsu TraceView | .trc from the CMA4000 and CMA5000, plain .sor | Both revisions of .trc, T5 and T6, and .sor |
| Yokogawa AQ7932, OTDR Report Generator | .sor from the AQ series | Opens |
| Fluke LinkWare PC | .tst from OptiFiber and OptiFiber Pro | Opens read-only, like the rest of the imports |
| Grandway | .sor and its own .otdr | .sor opens; .otdr needs a sample first |
| TopOTDRViewer | .sor from Russian instruments, up to seven traces on one chart | The same, and the workspace here holds 96 files |
All seven install on Windows and come from the instrument makers; each has its own terms for the download, and we do not paraphrase them.
What a browser does not give you
It needs a network: the page arrives over a link, and offline it does not arrive at all. The file you open is stored with us; what for is written in the terms of use.
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Product names belong to their owners; we are not affiliated with any of the manufacturers listed and do not distribute their software.