Raster to 3D example

From fmepedia

This example shows how to convert an image to 3D vector features.

The source is the Safe logo in PNG format:

The output is saved to 3D PDF (you need the latest version of Adobe Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)):

The main steps in the workspace are as follows:

• Coercing raster to points;
• Replacing points with squares, which build a continuous coverage;
• Dissolving the internal boundaries;
• Smoothing the outer boundaries.

Note that this method works well only with simple rasters with well defined color areas. It can work with gradients but the output will be much bigger. For example, 3D FME logo made from an image of approximately the same size is above 12 megabytes versa 40 kilobytes for the attached PDF. This method is also not suitable for scanned maps or photos. Images with lossy compressions such as used in JPEG, also will give bad results.