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Open ideas have been reviewed by our Product Management and are open for commenting and voting.
This idea is a bit of a follow up on the following question I created on the FME Community; https://community.safe.com/s/question/0D5Dm00000goQFoKAMIt feels a bit odd that in the 'Feature Information' window you can sometimes see that an attribute is of (Data) type 'bytes', but nowhere in transformers or functions of Workbench you seem to be able to leverage this information. E.g. the following two features;feature 1; text (bytes): 48656C6C6Ffeature 2; text (string: UTF-8): 48656C6C6Fare virtually inseparable/indistinguishable in FME. A sample dataset is attached (as zipped FME Feature Store (FFS) file). Therefore, I think it would be nice if the Data Type 'bytes' could get a bit more formal position in FME. E.g.;When testing/filtering with 'Operator' = 'Type is', add the ability to select 'Bytes' as a type.In AttributeManager/AttributeCreator (as of 2023), add option to set Type equal to 'Bytes'In Python FME (Objects) API, add 'bytes' as a formal data type. See e.g. the following; fmeobjects.FMEFeature.getAttributeType — Python FME API FME 2023.0 b23309 documentation (safe.com)
SummaryWhen adding readers and writers please create more readable and useful names for the navigator.DetailsWhen you add a reader or a writer the default name is not very useful for example:<not set> [ARCGISPORTALFEATURES]I find my navigator is much more readable when I rename the readers and writers something like this:Esri ArcGIS Portal Feature Service READERSo using the format description not the short name and specifying reader or writer (because after almost 20 years of using FME I still cannot distinguish the reader/writer icons).
The native Revit Writer only has support for surfaces.It would help the asset management flow to also have support for line and point objects.Point and line data can be used for referencing predefined classes in object libraries or as a basis for new drawings.This is in line (pun intended) of the Revit way of constructing objects such as walls based on heartline or outside line (inner or outer face)
With the current Directory Watch capability, a trigger message is fired for every file change that occurs in the watched directory. This is fine when a workbench is required to process each file change.In the scenario where multiple files are copied into the directory that you want to process all at once (e.g. copy in multiple mid/mif files to be converted into one file geodatabase), a trigger is fired for each file, where you would ideally want one trigger message to say "this directory content has changed".I would like to see an option on the directory watch configuration to allow either one trigger per file change (i.e. the current situation) or one trigger per directory change (i.e. where one or more files have been changed/created). This will then allow the associated workbench to be run once to process all files in the directory.
Extend the HTMLReportGenerator Parameters window some more to make more room on the Content Settings side. At present it's too difficult to review / write codes. I'm having to use VS Code first then Add the Attribute Values where needed.
For easier readability: Add icon in Feature Information window showing datatype . Similar to what is here: https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/43695/graphic-representation-of-various-data-types
I'm a big fan of the History window. I don't think that many people know about it and it's really useful.I think it could do with a bit of care though. For example recently I was missing the Save action in the timeline. There's probably other actions I can't think of right now that should appear there too.
Add Timeout Parameters to JSON Readers, you can put a API URL into the json readers and it works, however some API's are really slow and it will timeout. You can work around this by using the HTTP Caller, but having the json reader is a lot nicer, as the reader parses the json into attributes itself.
It looks like FME's SketchUp Reader only supports the .skp file extension.We have customers who use Rapid Sketch files (.rs) and require conversion to Esri format. Is it feasible to add support for the .rs sketch file format in FME? Thanks!
It would be helpful if a "Data Type" column was added to the AttributeManager, so we could view/change/set the data type of each attribute. Another option would be to allow the data type to be set manually when a new attribute is created.I know it is possible to set the data types on the writer feature type, but I think this would be especially helpful when creating a new attribute. Additionally, if I am copying an existing AttributeManager (within the same workspace, or into a different one) it would be nice if I could set the data type for an attribute once, and that would be preserved when the transformer is copied - That way I wouldn't have to manually change the data type on every output feature type.
FME Desktop 2022.1 Build 22618: Having the functionality to connect C or D drive to FME to be able to drag and drop data decently, Elaboration:FME Desktop 2022.1 Build 22618: How to connect C or D drive to FME to be able to drag and drop data decently?
Currently when you set-up automation in FME Server, the trigger option include email received. One of the option for email received is download attachments. You can specify a location to save the attachment. This can be on FME server or network location where FME server account can write to. However there is a new folder created each time the automation is trigger and this can be annoying. It would be great there is an option to enable/disable creation of subfolder and also possibly save the attachment and overwrite the existing file.
The inclusion of the ability to compare workspaces in workbench as part of the git workflow is a really big step forward when it comes to including FME in the typical development workflow.Another really helpful addition would be having the ability to either embed or link certain custom transformers via command line.We work on a number of projects with often each contain several Custom Transformers - Each of which are maintained in separate Git repos. During development of the 'main' workspace these CustomTransformers are linked to the latest version. When it comes time to releasing the new version of the workspace it is a manual task of opening up the workspace and embedding the transformers. The alternative option is to deliver the CustomTrasformers in addition to the workspace and have the end user install the CustomTransfomers before opening the workspace. Being able to automatically embed select custom transformers would enable a proper build pipeline.
Support readers/writers for Bentley's Open Roads, as many transportation agencies are using them.
so that the user can specify the log file path for the target workspace optionally, without publishing the Log File parameter in the target workspace. The parameter should be optional, and accept a constant, string expression, attribute value, and user parameter value.
We have the named database connections, and the named web services, what we don't have is the ability to save named http authentification for use in readers accessing an online file, or in the HTTPCaller.
The process to upgrade an instance is a small hassle currently, I GREAT improvement would be say a "one-click" option.
MRR is the native format for MapInfo Pro Advanced developed by Pitney Bowes. It unifies raster storage - image, grid and classified data and all can be held by this format, singly or in combination in the same file. the file format supports huge raster files and does not take up space for null data. MRR has a flexible and unrestricted field and band structure.
It would be nice to have some options in the Geometry Picker. The vertices are quite large. Also it would be nice to be able to change the colour of the geometry
Just like the AmazonAthena- and GoogleBigQueryConnector it would be very helpful to have a Microsoft Azure equivalent to query their cloud data warehouse (via Synapse Analytics). Another implementation, like a Reader or SQLExecutor would be fine as well, as I can foresee now.
Provide a reader and writer to www.airtable.com. This database is getting a lot of adoption as of late. It'd be nice to be able to access it through FME.
MDX is a format associated with Microdrainage hydraulic modelling software, widely used in the UK by developers for the design of foul and surface water sewers. Whilst it possible to export the data spatial data from within the package to csv dxf etc it would be useful to migrate with the likes of FME in order to under take bulk conversions. Microdrainage is now part of the Autodesk Group
I'm missing the capability in FME for reading SVG images so you can use them as icons in reports or when plotting pdf maps that works in FME Desktop and FME server/cloud.
For automating processes an option to set up an automatic update of readers would help. An option to update readers at run, or a .bat command
Software products dominate the market share through use and ubiquity of a filetype they control. Think SHP, PDF, DOCX, use of the filetype is directly related to the success of their companies, they're proprietary formats that most other products have to support to be relevant. We have FFS, which is a universal format which can represent anything. PDFs are to documents what FFS is to data. How do we shift behaviour so that data sharing is done in FFS, and not GDB or XLSX etc? The only barrier is that FME is required to read/view a FFS file.What if there was a basic free version of the Data Inspector which could only read FFS? That's how Adobe did it for PDFs.Or what if there was a browser plugin, so you could send a FFS file or have it in cloud storage, and you could simply open and view it there?
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