From fmepedia

The information here is designated one of the   Top 20 FME Tips that are the most cool, interesting or useful.

What's Great in the next FME?

This is the What's Great for 2010: You probably want What's Great in FME2009

---

Long-time FME'ers will know that with each release of FME we issue a list of "What's Great" with that version. That list gets built up and added to as we work through the beta cycle of that product.

Now we're making that list open to public viewing before the release. So here's what's going to be great about FME 2010 - and remember to check back here for regular updates.

NB: If you were redirected here from another page and find there are no images then simply click the 'article' link at the top of the page.

---

Warning

As with any beta version, be aware that it is subject to change and the functionality might not be the final version.

We don't really recommend using a beta for production work unless there's a specific bug fix that you need.

---

Summary of Highlights

Functionality	# of new items
New Vector Formats	-
New Raster Formats	-
New Transformers	-
New Factories + Functions	-

Table of contents

1 Warning 2 Summary of Highlights 3 General 3.1 Splashscreen 3.2 Core 3.3 Licensing 3.4 GUI 4 Applications 4.1 Workbench 4.2 FME Universal Viewer 4.3 FME Server 4.4 Application Extenders 4.4.1 AutoDesk 5 Formats 5.1 Vector Formats 5.1.1 New Vector Formats 5.1.2 Vector Format Updates 5.2 Raster Formats 5.2.1 New Raster Formats 5.2.2 Raster Format Updates 6 Functionality 6.1 Core 6.2 Transformers 6.2.1 New Transformers 6.2.2 Transformer Updates 6.3 Factories 6.3.1 New Factories 6.3.2 Factory Updates 6.4 Functions 6.4.1 New Functions 6.4.2 Function Updates 6.5 Coordinate Systems 6.6 Scripting 6.6.1 Tcl 6.6.2 Python 6.6.3 Mapping Files

---

General

Splashscreen

Above: The preliminary 2010 splashscreen.

Core

• Switch the default for Geometry Handling from "Classic" to "Enhanced". This applies to Viewer and Workbench (PR#17325)
  • The Geometry Handling setting has always defaulted to "Classic" for new workspaces. Now it defaults to "Enhanced" (what used to be known as Rich). Existing workspaces are unaffected by this change.

Licensing

GUI

---

[edit] Applications

[edit] Workbench

• Navigator Pane
  • Allow users to modify the Feature Types to Read parameter (PR#19618)
    • With this change users have the ability to add Feature Types which do not exist in the workspace, either manually or by importing from another dataset

• FME Server Integration
  • Added a checkbox option for optionally not including resources when downloading a workspace from an FME Server (PR#15847)
  • Made the FME Server "Upload Resources" dialog available even if no resources are automatically detected (PR#16666)

• Transformers
  • Renamed CoordinateFetcher to CoordinateExtractor (PR#19708)
  • Renamed CoordinateSystemFetcher to CoordinateSystemExtractor (PR#19708)
  • Renamed GeometryTraitFetcher to GeometryTraitExtractor (PR#19708)

• GUI
  • Display pink dot (for drag and insert) correctly on Visualizer transformers (PR#13080)
  • Allow use of Shift key in QuickConnect (Ctrl key already permitted) to handle multiple connections

[edit] FME Universal Viewer

[edit] FME Server

[edit] Application Extenders

AutoDesk

• FDO

---

[edit] Formats

[edit] Vector Formats

New Vector Formats

• ESRI MSD
  • Initial implementation of an ESRI MSD reader (RT#96284 PR#15409)

Vector Format Updates

• ESRI Geodatabase
  • Added reading of domains that are linked to subtypes (PR#14180)
    • Resolves the situation where K is basically a domain within a subtype, such that the domain that K uses depends on the subtype value for I.

• S57
  • Added format attributes s57_update_file{} and s57_update_type{} to each feature to identify which associated update files (*.001, *.002, etc) included changes (RT##54967 RT#70581 RT#120270 PR#11574)
    • When reading S57 data it is possible to apply updates from additional files. All features updated in this way are now tagged to show which update file(s) applied changes to that feature.
    • All update files (*.001, *.002, etc) being read along with the main dataset now cause a log message to confirm their use (RT#120270 PR#18648)

• • Added a source settings box option so the user can specify whether the source data is v1 or v2 (RT#47484 PR#11011)
  • Add support for IENC version 2.0 (RT#117676 PR#18232)

• AutoCAD Map 3D Object Data
  • Added support for reading MPolygon entities (the plain AutoCAD DWG reader already had this functionality) (RT#118907 RT#120701 PR#18401)
  • Added ability to append object data to entities which already exist in the template file (PR#19161)
    • Features given to the writer with an autocad_entity attribute of autocad_od_table and an autocad_od_entitty_key that matches the entity handle of an existing feature in the template file, while the writer is set to append data to the template file, will add the attributes as object data on the referenced entities.

• PDF Geospatial (2D)
  • Added unicode support for non-page-text elements (PR#19086)
  • Added support for a number of North American and International page sizes (PR#19073)
  • Added ability to create tooltips on objects in a PDF using pdf_tooltip format attribute (PR#18964)
  • Added ability to create hyperlinks on objects in a PDF using pdf_url format attribute (PR#19070)
  • Added Feature Type parameter to optionally hide layers (PR#19314)

• MicroStation Design (DGN) V8
  • Added support for reading and writing custom linestyles as blobs (PR#6063 RT#12995 RT#44252 RT#48236 RT#59915 RT#98600 RT#113668 RT#118225 RT#120445 RT#121145)

• AutoCAD DWG/DXF
  • Added a new reader keyword STORE_LAYER_INFO (RT#96970 PR#16331)
    • Set to "yes" this keyword causes features to receive attributes describing their source layer. The following attributes were added: autocad_layer_linetype, autocad_layer_color, and autocad_layer_lineweight

• E00/Coverage
  • Support region aggregates (PR#18959 RT#121750)

• ODBC
  • Add ability to use persistent connections in reader and writer (PR#16744)

• XML
  • Added options SUPPRESS_XML_DOCUMENT and SUPPRESS_XSD. If the location is a URI then .xsd output is suppressed automatically.

• Database
  • Non-database formats writing to a database now preferentially map strings to fme_varchar not fme_char (RT#122719 PR#19110)

• "FFS (FME Feature Store)'
  • Writer converted to a FILE writer to allows correct feature type name storage (PR#5630 RT#14009)
  • Added compatibility with fanout. (PR#10851)
  • Removed SCAN_FOR_SCHEMA and NO_SCHEMA writer directives. (PR#10851)
  • Writer compression default is now 0 (PR#10851)

[edit] Raster Formats

New Raster Formats

Raster Format Updates

---

[edit] Functionality

[edit] Core

[edit] Transformers

New Transformers

• ProxixGeocoder
  • Created a Geocoding transformer and factory which invokes the Proxix web service (PR#17629)

Above: The ProxixGeocoder transformer settings

• MeasureRemover
  • Added a new transformer MeasureRemover, based on new REMOVE_MEASURES and REMOVE_ALL_MEASURES options in @Geometry (PR#14739)

• ConvexityFilter
  • Added a new transformer, ConvexityFilter, which determines whether areas, surfaces, and solids are concave or convex (PR#17093)

Transformer Updates

---

[edit] Factories

New Factories

Factory Updates

---

[edit] Functions

New Functions

• RasterPaletteAttributes
  • A new function to convert values between palettes and attributes (RT#123181 PR#14559)

Function Updates

• Geometry
  • Add functionality to determine whether areas and multi-surfaces are planer (PR#17138)

---

[edit] Coordinate Systems

---

[edit] Scripting

Tcl

Python

Mapping Files