CimViewer

A single-file web tool for inspecting IEC CIM / CIM100 RDF/XML power-network exports in the browser. Loads any CIM XML file, draws components on a real map and on a non-crossing schematic, and flags common data-quality problems (like AcLineSegments with the wrong number of Terminals).

▶ Try it online

Launch CimViewer →

No install, no clone, no sign-up — click the link, pick your CIM XML file, and it parses entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Prefer to run it locally? See Running it locally below.

Features

• Two views
  • Geographic — components placed on an OpenStreetMap background using their real PositionPoint coordinates.
  • Relationship — a schematic that lays every component out as a radial tree, with black dotted lines drawn along the CIM topology (Equipment ─ Terminal ─ ConnectivityNode ─ Terminal ─ Equipment). Nodes never overlap, so it's easy to see what's connected to what when components share a location on the map.
• Click any component to see every attribute from the source XML in a table — one click copies a value to the clipboard.
• Dynamic layers — every equipment type found in the file gets its own checkbox with a count.
• Validation checkboxes with an issues panel: highlights AcLineSegments with ≠2 terminals (pulsing red so they're impossible to miss), Terminals missing a ConnectivityNode, and Equipment missing a Location.
• Search by component name or mRID; pressing Enter zooms and selects in either view.
• Resizable sidebar, drag-to-pin nodes in the schematic, and zoom/pan on both views.

Running it locally

If you'd rather not use the hosted version, or you want to work offline:

1. Download CimViewer.html.
2. Serve the folder with any local HTTP server. The simplest way is Python (included with most systems):

   python -m http.server 8000
   

3. Open http://localhost:8000/CimViewer.html in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox).
4. Click Load CIM XML file… and pick your CIM RDF/XML export.

That's it. Nothing is uploaded anywhere — parsing happens entirely in your browser.

Why a local server? OpenStreetMap's tile servers require a valid HTTP Referer header. If you open the HTML file directly by double-clicking it, the browser uses the file:// protocol which sends no referer, so map tiles will show a 403 error. Serving from localhost fixes this. The Relationship (schematic) view works either way since it doesn't use map tiles.

Other ways to serve locally

Tool	Command
Python 3	python -m http.server 8000
Python 2	python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000
Node.js	npx serve .
PHP	php -S localhost:8000
VS Code	Install the "Live Server" extension, right-click the file → Open with Live Server

Supported CIM shape

• Namespaces: http://iec.ch/TC57/CIM100# (plus Zepben Evolve extensions).
• Any top-level CIM element with a PowerSystemResource.Location is recognised as equipment automatically — the type list is built from the file, so PowerTransformers, BusbarSections, custom types, etc. all appear without code changes.
• Equipment with ≥2 PositionPoints is drawn as a polyline; everything else as a point marker.
• The schematic topology is reconstructed from Terminal.ConductingEquipment and Terminal.ConnectivityNode references.

Dependencies

The page pulls these from public CDNs at load time:

• Leaflet 1.9.4 — map rendering
• OpenStreetMap tiles
• D3 v7 — schematic layout (force + radial tree)

If you're behind a strict corporate proxy that blocks unpkg.com, cdn.jsdelivr.net or tile.openstreetmap.org, the relevant part of the page will fail silently. Easiest workaround: vendor the library files locally and update the <script>/<link> tags.

Browser support

Any modern Chromium-based browser, Firefox, or Safari. The tool uses plain DOM + SVG + fetch + DOMParser — no polyfills required.

Limitations / not yet supported

• CIM-level assets that aren't PowerSystemResource-located (e.g. catalog data) are skipped.
• The schematic layout builds a BFS spanning tree per connected component, so cycles in the topology are rendered without their extra edges (cycles are rare in distribution networks but common in transmission).
• Single-file tool — no persistence, no backend, no diff between files.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome. Keep the tool as a single HTML file with CDN dependencies unless there's a strong reason to add a build step.

License

MIT — do whatever you like, no warranty.

Support

If this tool saves you time, you can buy me a coffee ☕. Entirely optional — the code stays free.