MOTIVATION: Whole genome sequencing is becoming a diagnostics of choice for the 
identification of rare inherited and de novo copy number variants in families 
with various pediatric and late-onset genetic diseases. However, joint variant 
calling in pedigrees is hampered by the complexity of consensus breakpoint 
alignment across samples within an arbitrary pedigree structure.
RESULTS: We have developed a new tool, Canvas SPW, for the identification of 
inherited and de novo copy number variants from pedigree sequencing data. Canvas 
SPW supports a number of family structures and provides a wide range of scoring 
and filtering options to automate and streamline identification of de novo 
variants.
AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Canvas SPW is available for download from 
https://github.com/Illumina/canvas.
CONTACT: sivakhno@illumina.com.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics 
online.