So... until my new job starts in October, I have some time to kill! I'd love to build a useful custom transformer or format and share it on FME Hub, but the problem is: I'm out of ideas...
Do you have an idea for a transformer/format that would really be helpful to the community? So not something that only applies to your unique situation, but can be used by everyone? Post it below and who knows... it might appear on FME Hub the next coming weeks! Your name will be mentioned of course :)
The DoWhatIThinker would be a nice one ;)
But if you're looking for serious suggestions... One thing that I often have to do as a cartographer is determine the relation between map scale, map size and area covered.
Say I have a 50 x 100 km area that I want to map at 1:100.000 scale, how much space on paper would this be? (actually, that's an easy one: 50 x 100 cm)
This also ties in with the resolution of raster- or elevation datasets. For example:
I have an elevation dataset with a resolution of 3 arc-second, customer wants shaded relief at scale 1:50.000 and it has to be printed at 300 dpi, does my dataset have the resolution to accomodate that?
My calculation: 3 arc second is 3/3600th of a degree, so 90 meters (at the equator... we really should incorporate projections into this as well). But 1:50.000 scale at 300 dpi means every pixel is about 5 meters (300 dpi means it's 11.8 dots per millimeter and 1 millimeter at 1:50.000 scale is 50 meters)
So the answer in this case is: no, the elevation data does not have the resolution to accomodate this (you can render the shaded relief at the required resolution, that's no problem, but you'll see artifacts)
Anyway... I have been trying to get something set up for this but haven't gotten very far yet. Ideally it'd be an FME Cloud thing that people could just access online: enter a few parameters, press go and get their results.
If this is something you think you could help out with, let me know (and if I'm not making any sense please let me know too)
The DoWhatIThinker would be a nice one ;)
But if you're looking for serious suggestions... One thing that I often have to do as a cartographer is determine the relation between map scale, map size and area covered.
Say I have a 50 x 100 km area that I want to map at 1:100.000 scale, how much space on paper would this be? (actually, that's an easy one: 50 x 100 cm)
This also ties in with the resolution of raster- or elevation datasets. For example:
I have an elevation dataset with a resolution of 3 arc-second, customer wants shaded relief at scale 1:50.000 and it has to be printed at 300 dpi, does my dataset have the resolution to accomodate that?
My calculation: 3 arc second is 3/3600th of a degree, so 90 meters (at the equator... we really should incorporate projections into this as well). But 1:50.000 scale at 300 dpi means every pixel is about 5 meters (300 dpi means it's 11.8 dots per millimeter and 1 millimeter at 1:50.000 scale is 50 meters)
So the answer in this case is: no, the elevation data does not have the resolution to accomodate this (you can render the shaded relief at the required resolution, that's no problem, but you'll see artifacts)
Anyway... I have been trying to get something set up for this but haven't gotten very far yet. Ideally it'd be an FME Cloud thing that people could just access online: enter a few parameters, press go and get their results.
If this is something you think you could help out with, let me know (and if I'm not making any sense please let me know too)
Hi @sander_s, that is a good Idea.
I'll think about a useful transformer for the comunity. :)
Thanks,
Interesting. If I can think of anything specific I'll let you know. In the meantime there's always this to contribute to: https://github.com/safesoftware/BestPractice
Interesting. If I can think of anything specific I'll let you know. In the meantime there's always this to contribute to: https://github.com/safesoftware/BestPractice
Based on ideas with popular votes
PDF reader - some sort of wrapper using www.foolabs.com/xpdf as was shown in the UC.
Schema modifier - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/19730/introduce-new-transformer-to-modify-schema-easily.html
PolygonSplitter - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/46814/transformer-to-split-a-polygon-by-line.html and https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/36673/polygonsplitter.html
3DSlicer - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/18906/3d-slicer.html
ListAppender - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/38231/listappender.html
I personally would love to see a transformer that calculates the maximal area inscribed rectangle for a given polygon.
See
https://d3plus.org/blog/behind-the-scenes/2014/07/08/largest-rect/
http://www.drdobbs.com/database/the-maximal-rectangle-problem/184410529 (axis-aligned)
https://geonet.esri.com/thread/182008-how-to-find-the-maximum-rectangle-contained-within-a-polygon
Based on ideas with popular votes
PDF reader - some sort of wrapper using www.foolabs.com/xpdf as was shown in the UC.
Schema modifier - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/19730/introduce-new-transformer-to-modify-schema-easily.html
PolygonSplitter - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/46814/transformer-to-split-a-polygon-by-line.html and https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/36673/polygonsplitter.html
3DSlicer - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/18906/3d-slicer.html
ListAppender - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/38231/listappender.html
Orthogonal Generalization:
Some papers on the subject are:
Haunert and Wolff. Optimal and Topologically Safe Simplification of Building Footprints https://www.researchgate.net/publication/208973342_Optimal_and_Topologically_Safe_Simplification_of_Building_Footprints Lupa, Koziol and Lesniak. An Attempt to Automate the Simplification of Building Objects in Multiresolution DatabasesA visual compare and diff between two workspaces. Which transformers, readers and writers are added, modified or deleted. See: https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/51439/visual-compare-two-workspaces.html
Orthogonal Generalization:
Some papers on the subject are:
Haunert and Wolff. Optimal and Topologically Safe Simplification of Building Footprints https://www.researchgate.net/publication/208973342_Optimal_and_Topologically_Safe_Simplification_of_Building_Footprints Lupa, Koziol and Lesniak. An Attempt to Automate the Simplification of Building Objects in Multiresolution Databases
I personally would love to see a transformer that calculates the maximal area inscribed rectangle for a given polygon.
See
https://d3plus.org/blog/behind-the-scenes/2014/07/08/largest-rect/
http://www.drdobbs.com/database/the-maximal-rectangle-problem/184410529 (axis-aligned)
https://geonet.esri.com/thread/182008-how-to-find-the-maximum-rectangle-contained-within-a-polygon
Based on ideas with popular votes
PDF reader - some sort of wrapper using www.foolabs.com/xpdf as was shown in the UC.
Schema modifier - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/19730/introduce-new-transformer-to-modify-schema-easily.html
PolygonSplitter - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/46814/transformer-to-split-a-polygon-by-line.html and https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/36673/polygonsplitter.html
3DSlicer - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/18906/3d-slicer.html
ListAppender - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/38231/listappender.html
A visual compare and diff between two workspaces. Which transformers, readers and writers are added, modified or deleted. See: https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/51439/visual-compare-two-workspaces.html
Orthogonal Generalization:
Some papers on the subject are:
Haunert and Wolff. Optimal and Topologically Safe Simplification of Building Footprints https://www.researchgate.net/publication/208973342_Optimal_and_Topologically_Safe_Simplification_of_Building_Footprints Lupa, Koziol and Lesniak. An Attempt to Automate the Simplification of Building Objects in Multiresolution Databases
Based on ideas with popular votes
PDF reader - some sort of wrapper using www.foolabs.com/xpdf as was shown in the UC.
Schema modifier - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/19730/introduce-new-transformer-to-modify-schema-easily.html
PolygonSplitter - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/46814/transformer-to-split-a-polygon-by-line.html and https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/36673/polygonsplitter.html
3DSlicer - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/18906/3d-slicer.html
ListAppender - https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/38231/listappender.html
For instance, when appending to parent{}.child{}.value, should it append new child.values for every parent (which seems a bit odd to me)? Or should you be able to select parent{n}.child{}.value, where n is a selected parent list node, so that new child.values are appended for a specific parent?
The latter would make more sense, but GUI-wise, it's a nightmare. I also had to create a hacky solution for my ListKeyValuePairExtractor (that also supports nested lists), so it would be cleaner to only support non-nested lists.
I've been thinking about doing a custom transformer to implement my PedanticSorter idea but haven't had time.
https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/41576/sorter-options-for-handling-null-missing-empty-str.html
Hi, @sander_s. If there are any of these ideas that you don't want to work on, let me know - I have had some free time lately as well, and am looking for FME brain-food. :-)
Hi, @sander_s. If there are any of these ideas that you don't want to work on, let me know - I have had some free time lately as well, and am looking for FME brain-food. :-)
I've started working on the ListAppender now and might do another one after that. Not sure which one. Just pick something and let me know!
I've been thinking about doing a custom transformer to implement my PedanticSorter idea but haven't had time.
https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/41576/sorter-options-for-handling-null-missing-empty-str.html
I've been thinking about doing a custom transformer to implement my PedanticSorter idea but haven't had time.
https://knowledge.safe.com/idea/41576/sorter-options-for-handling-null-missing-empty-str.html