FME Evangelism Weekly Issue #12
Introduction
Today’s email is an ad-hoc info session on the FME2009 beta. Expect more follow ups in the near future.
Cheers,
Mark
Contents
1) First FME2009 Beta now Released!
2) New GUI Interface
3) Transformer Changes
4) Performance Issues
5) Cool Format Updates
6) Cool Functionality Updates
7) The Complete What’s Great
1) First FME2009 Beta now Released!
Yes. You heard it here first.
The first FME2009 beta build is going to be released in the next couple of hours, if not already.
Hence the need to brief you all on the changes you will find.
As usual you can obtain it from our web site downloads page, or directly from our ftp site.
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 (and since most of those have been ported to an updated 2008 build, there’s even less excuse).
The biggest thing that you’ll notice about this version of FME is a completely overhauled user interface for settings boxes.
You may have noticed a couple of these sneak into FME2008 (for example the ‘Add Published Parameter’ dialog), but now the entire bunch of settings dialogs have been overhauled to use this design.
The Bufferer transformer is a good example. The new dialog looks like this (below):
Notice that required fields are all highlighted in yellow, to show you where to fill in compulsory values, and that you are also prompted on which type of data to enter (eg “Floating Point Value”, “String or Attribute Name”, etc).
It’s not obvious from a static image, but these dialogs are also capable of being resized, which is something you couldn’t do with the old dialogs - for example (below):
This update applies to both transformer settings and reader/writer settings dialogs too.
From our point of view, the really nice thing about this upgrade is that we now have a whole lot more options for advanced GUI features (for example greying out one setting based on the value of another) which will eventually lead to a more logical interface. Another benefit is that these dialogs are compatible with Linux operating systems, bringing us one step closer to relealizing a full FME version for Linux.
If you are looking for the LineGeneralizer or AreaGeneralizer transformer, you’ll find that we’ve combined them into a single transformer called the Generalizer.
Likewise, if you are looking for the Rasterizer transformer, be aware that it’s been split up into the ImageRasterizer and NumericRasterizer.
You need to be aware that our in-house test suite has identified a number of performance issues that are still being addressed.
a) Six of our tests required a reduced value for the “Max Features in Memory” setting before they would complete. That’s six tests out of several thousand, but it’s possible that you may need to adjust this setting to get an existing workspace to complete.
b) Performance (speed) suffered when we moved to a new programming environment. We know why and it’s being worked on, but for the time being some translations may run up to 50% slower.
c) We appear to take a performance hit when reading/writing networked datasets (ie files that are not on the local filesystem). Again, we’re looking into the causes and will fix it asap.
There have been a number of cool updates to formats that are worth mentioning here in brief:
a) DGN Tag Writing
Here’s something you’ll not have seen before (below). A DGN destination feature type with attributes on it.
Workspaces writing to DGN will now generate an attribute schema, and the attributes will be written to tags.
Left: Tag writing is turned on/off using a setting in the navigation pane. Default is currently on.
b) MapInfo MDB/XLS Support
The MapInfo MITAB reader now supports MapInfo TAB datasets where attributes are stored in either an MDB or XLS spreadsheet.
c) Adobe PDF Updates
PDF output now permits control over background colour, page size and ambient/specular colours.
d) Database SQL Statements
Database formats that permit the concept now support multiple before/after SQL statements. A semicolon is used for the delimiter between statements.
e) BigTIFF Support
The GeoTIFF writer now supports the ability to write BigTIFF datasets.
f) Autocad DWG MPolygon support
The DWG reader now supports MPolygon entities.
There have also been a number of cool updates to FME functionality that are worth mentioning here in brief:
a) Arc Stroking
The stroking of arcs (well actually any curve) can now be controlled by a new directive FME_STROKE_MAX_DEVIATION which defines the maximum distance between the arc and the stroked chord. This is exposed in the Workbench GUI and in various transformers. It’s key use is to control internal operations - for example when writing to a non arc-supporting format.
b) Raster Clipping
The Raster Clipper now supports non-rectangular clipping. This is way way way cool.
c) Raster Expression Evaluator
This new transformer lets you carry out algebra type functions on raster cells.
Dmitri has a great page full of examples.
Don’t forget that the full list of Great items can be found on fmepedia:
Also check out Dmitri’s fmepedia pages for lots of examples.
http://www.fmepedia.com/index.php/Category:Dmitris_Raster_Studio
http://www.fmepedia.com/index.php/Category:Dmitris_3D_Place
http://www.fmepedia.com/index.php/Category:Web_Services
This has been a general overview of what you can expect to find in the new FME2009 beta.
The evangelism email will look at all of these new functions and formats in closer detail in the near future.
Don’t forget to email us feedback and suggestions for any of this new functionality.
June 2nd, 2008




















