Viewer cache holds a lot of data and can require a lot of disk space. If your computer runs several applications, it may be necessary to reclaim disk space for the viewer cache.
For security reasons, it is best to erase image files from your system as studies are completed. Typically, the viewer manages its cache by clearing unnecessary files on an as-needed basis. Therefore, no intervention is needed. Nevertheless, the viewer provides manual and scheduled cache clearing functions to remove lingering data files from the disk.
To manually remove the data from the viewer cache, select Empty Cache from the File menu or from the Customize Settings’ Cache page.
To schedule a recurring purge of the cache, define the option from the Cache page in Customize Settings. Options include the following:
Purge files after N days: This setting is used to clear unused cache files that have been unused for the defined number of days. This is the default setting. It permits prefetched studies to remain on the workstation without having to wait for them to download from the server.
Purge files when signing off: This setting is used to clear all cache files when the user logs out of the PACS system. Purging begins after some number of minutes, which is configurable.
Purge files upon exit: This setting clears all cache files immediately after the viewer terminates. This includes exiting the viewer from standby mode, such as when shutting down the workstation.