Hello FME'ers,

Here is your weekly update on all the news related to FME.

New 2021 (2021.2.4)

Of course, we're all looking forward to the release of FME 2022, but fixes are still made to 2021. In fact, a new version of FME 2021 was released last week, 2021.2.4. As usual, there are few highlights (because it's not meant to be a spectacular release) but you should consider looking into this if you have experienced problems with either the ArcGIS Portal Reader or Excel writer. The changelog file has more information.

Dmitri and Lena's AR Spectacular

Otherwise known as the Exploring Outdoor Infrastructure with AR webinar! This took place yesterday and was very successful. Congratulations to them both for pulling off some great live demos.

If you missed the webinar, you can find the recording on our website, or on YouTube.

FME's Favourite Transformer

The Favourite FME Transformer contest is now into its second round of voting, and there are some close matchups. For example, the FeatureWriter was a clear favourite over the Logger in round 1, but is less dominant over the much-loved Clipper transformer in round 2:

So click the link above to take part and vote for your favourites, such as who is your favourite "Caller" - Python or HTTP?

Hub Updates by Lars

One of the transformers in the above contest is the FeatureMerger, which - from a previous poll - I know is the favourite of user Lars de Vries. I mention Lars because he recently posted about how he updated the 8 custom transformers that he has on the FME Hub:

As Lars mentioned, with over 8,000 downloads these have been incredibly helpful to the FME Community. What's more, as FME is updated over the years, your transformers and workspaces need updating too, and that includes contributions to the FME Hub.

So thank you to Lars for your contributions and for keeping them up-to-date. It is much appreciated. As a small thank you, I'll be sending you some of our FME Community trading cards (the 2022 version has just been released).

Remember, the winning transformer in the Favourite Transformer contest will be immortalized as a special holographic card, so Lars, you'll want to go and vote for the FeatureMerger right away!

GeometryFilter Updates 2022

Another transformer in the contest bracket is the GeometryFilter. It's getting more love than I expected and perhaps that's because of some anticipated changes coming up in FME 2022.

Notice that there are two modes in there now: Simple and Complete.

Simple mode merges together some options (for example, "Area" includes both donuts and ellipses) while Complete displays the full list of FME geometries, in a nice tree format, to give you complete control over your data.

So maybe I, too, will learn to love the GeometryFilter.

Partner Videos: FME zum Kaffee, Transformer Friday, and the Supercar Challenge

I love to see our partners produce engaging content for their customers and there are several this week worthy of highlighting.

In Germany, con terra has produced another in the FME zum Kaffee series, this one about the different import options available inside transformers, for example, the AttributeManager:

According to the YouTube auto-generated subtitles, this will help you to save time when working on 18 boats. Hmmm. Maybe that doesn't translate well?!

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Red Geographics published one of their weekly Transformer Friday posts:

Inge has even been making a video about the FeatureJoiner - although not without some unexpected help!

The final partner contribution comes from across the world, in New Zealand. Here Locus are taking the FME World Tour theme very seriously, as you can see:

So, when you have an FME-themed supercar available and you want to do a client interview... the result is the fastest Q+A session on four wheels!

Certification Updates and the FMEUC

As usual, here are some shout-outs to recently certified FME users. First up, from my home county of Leicestershire is Robert Webster with FME Certified Professional; then there is Artimān Rad, who achieved his FME Server accreditation this week. Charlotte Duynstee at Tensing achieved Certified Professional status, German Gonzalez of Consortech achieved FME Server Professional, as did Simon Allen in New Zealand.

Many congratulations to you all, and to all others who obtained their certification without me noticing. Also to Chris Wilson in New Zealand who broke his automation duck this week:

For non-cricket fans, a "duck" is a score of zero, so "to break your duck" means to raise your score above zero. In this context it means, to achieve something for the first time.

For example, if you come to Vancouver in August for your first visit to an FME User Conference, you will "break your conference duck". Speaking of which, the deadline for presentation submissions is... TOMORROW! Thursday 17th March. I just made a submission to present, and so should you!