Scansion is a fast, native macOS waveform viewer for VCD files — built for reading Verilog and SystemVerilog simulation outputs without fighting your
tools
Scansion is a fast, native macOS waveform viewer for VCD files — built for reading Verilog and SystemVerilog simulation outputs without fighting your
tools.
BROWSE MODE
A Scansion signature feature: click a module in the hierarchy and every signal under it draws at once. No setup, no hunting for signals to add —
exploring an unfamiliar dump is immediate instead of a chore. When you want a focused view, curate your own trace list instead.
BUILT FOR REAL-WORLD VCD
A fast native parser reads the messy shapes simulators actually emit:
• Per-bit dumps collapsed back into vectors — even when the bits arrive out of order
• Multi-dimensional arrays and structs inferred automatically
• Aliased/duplicate nets and escaped identifiers handled
• Signals declared but never driven shown as uninitialized, not silently dropped
• Full 5-state logic: 0, 1, X, Z, and U kept distinct
SEE YOUR SIGNALS YOUR WAY
• Digital, bus, analog, and real-valued rendering
• Analog scaling: relative, visible-range, or a pinned min/max axis — with step or linear interpolation for reals
• Value labels in hex, binary, octal, decimal, signed decimal, or ASCII
• Sub-pixel collapse keeps dense waveforms legible and fast when zoomed all the way out
MEASURE AND NAVIGATE
• Multiple cursors with time-delta (Δt) readouts and value-under-cursor
• Statistics over a window (min / max / average)
• Full keyboard navigation
A RICH MATIVE MAC APP
• Supports for multiple tabs, split views, Inspectors for quick investigation and manipulation
• Search and filtering, tags, hiding empty traces
• Layout profiles to keep your session setups across runs
WORKS WITH VCD FROM YOUR SIMULATOR
Open Value Change Dump files from Icarus Verilog, Verilator, ModelSim/Questa, Vivado, Xcelium, and other Verilog/SystemVerilog simulators.
Scansion is free.
Requires macOS 26.2 or later.