ArcGIS Interoperability Extension Formats and Functionality
From Fmepedia
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Q) Are all the FME formats inside ArcGIS Data Interoperability?
A) No. ArcGIS Data Interoperability has 75+ formats and FME has over 200 formats. Formats that were not included may have had licensing arrangements that prohibited their inclusion.
Q) Does ArcGIS Data Interoperability contain all FME transformers (e.g. geometric transformation operations)?
A) No. Some transformers were not included as part of the extension. For example, some transformers duplicated functionality already available inside of ArcGIS and therefore were not included as part of the extension.
Q) Can I extend the formats and functionality of the Data Interoperability Extension?
A) Yes. An add-on package is available. This package is purchased from Safe Software Inc as an extension to ESRI’s Data Interoperability extension.
See the Safe web site for more information (http://www.safe.com/solutions/application/esri/index.php).
Q) Do formats developed by third parties work with ArcGIS Data Interoperability?
A) Yes, but only once the product has been extended with the add-on package.
Q) Why aren't all the FME supported formats visible in the ArcCatalog browse tree?
A) Some FME supported formats can be viewed directly through the ArcCatalog browse tree and some cannot. The list of browse-able formats is based on whether the file extension is predictable and whether it will clash with another format.
For example, MGE is not browse-able because the file extensions are rarely DGN. Microsoft Access database files are not browse-able because the MDB extension clashes with GeoDatabase MDB files; it is possible for FME to open an MDB to check if it is a GeoDatabase or not, but this would have a very negative effect on performance so we don't do it.
If a format is not browse-able then you access them by making an Interoperability Connection.
Formats added through the FME add-on are NEVER viewable in the browse tree and must always be opened through Add FME Connections (Interoperability Connections is renamed to FME Connections once the product is extended).
