This manual contains complete details of the public domain specification of the C3D file format and is intended to provide all the information necessary to allow anyone to support standard C3D files in software applications as well as biomechanics, engineering or other data collection environments that uses C3D files.  It provides detailed technical documentation for:

·      Application and system programmers who write software applications that create or access C3D files containing 3D point and analog channel information.

·      Engineers who need to configure or set up data collection environments that use the C3D format to store data. 

·      End users who want to understand how their data is stored.

While the manual occasionally assumes that the reader is reasonably comfortable with the concepts of hexadecimal notation, simple mathematics and basic programming structures, it is not necessary to be an expert in order to use this document.