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I have a pretty general question.  I want to run FME in batch mode.  Where can I get more information on doing so and what is the best way.

 

 

The article I found on FMEpedia was empty: https://safe.secure.force.com/articles/How_To/Batch-Processing-Method-1-Command-Line-or-Batch-File
Try this article

 

 

http://fmepedia.safe.com/articles/FAQ/FME-Batch-Processing-Methods-Advantages-Disadvantages#heading_toc_j_2

 


Hi Paul,

 

 

If you are not using published parameters or anything dynamic then it is really quite simple. You do not even have to use the FME Batch Wizard to carry this out.

 

 

Just create a one-line batch fie using the following convention:

 

fme "C:\\fme\\workspaces\\MyWorkspace.fmw"

 

and this will kick off the workspace for you from the command line.

 

 

However if you have installed more than one version of FME (past or present) and changed install locations then you should explicitly tell the batch file where to call fme.exe, as follows:

 

C:\\apps\\FME\\fme.exe "C:\\fme\\workspaces\\MyWorkspace.fmw"

 

To clean up your references to fme.exe have a look at your Windows Environment Variables, as it may be declared more than once.

 

  Hope that helps for your simple batch files!

 

 

Brendan

The article I found on FMEpedia was empty

 

 

That's strange. I do see content in the article. What web browser are you using?

 

 

Regardless, the three main methods are:

 

 

1) Batch Files (like Brendan describes)

 

2) File > Batch Deploy

 

3) Use WorkspaceRunner (often with File/Path Reader)

 

 

I've always preferred the Batch Deploy option, especially over batch files (which I just think are clunky), but the WorkspaceRunner transformer is gaining in popularity I think, and has some good updates in 2013, so I would probably go in that direction. You get more control over what processes are being run, how many at once, etc.

 

 

Your links for the batch processing methods are working now. 

 

Thank you Mark and Brendan.  I managed to create a .bat file and I ran a batch translation successfully.  I'll have to look over the batch deploy article and see if that makes things a little easier.


I have to admit the WorkspaceRunner is one of my favourite Transformers, it has got me out of a hole more times than I can remember when I've needed to do heavy processing on less than capable machines. The trick to using it is making sure that you publish the LOG_FILE parameter on the workspace you are running multiple times and then pass into it a variable log file name to get unique logs for each process that you can later interrogate.

 

 

Brendan mentions fun when having multiple versions installed this is especially the case when you want to perhaps send some jobs to a 64bit FME and some to a 32bit FME. At the moment the WorkspaceRunner doesn't allow you to set which FME you want it to use so I built my own WorkspaceRunner sometime ago using the SystemCaller which gets around this limitation.
In FME 2013 the WorkspaceRunner has just got better by adding the ability to control the number of concurrent jobs that are sent, meaning that you don't need to wait for each job to complete. Current Desktop licensing model allows you to run up to 8x Desktop engines concurrently.

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