Reading an Arc .lyr File into FME 2016 issue.

Can you post some screenshots and maybe the relevant part of the log file here please?

Apologies - first time I've tried to post a question, I thought the whole text had been posted but it appears it only accepted part of it. So here's the full question below.

 

I'm struggling reading an Arc .lyr file into FME 2016. I've searched the internet for help and not found any reference to the 'problem' which I’ve encountered.? It is possible that FME isn't designed to do what I'm expecting it to do.

 

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The problem. I've inherited a series of ESRI Arc 9.3.1 .mxd's. Each contain multiple layers. Each layer shares a single very large source data, and applies a definition to this so it only shows a very small part of the data. The definition of each layer is different. In Arc I can't see what the definition is (no definition query is shown, no selection either), but if I export the layer as a .lyr file the definition information is exported. So when I open the .lyr in Arc catalogue only the relevant small part of the data is shown.

 

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But when I use the ARCGIS_LAYER reader in FME 2016 it reads in the whole of the source data, suggesting that the reader doesn't see or can’t interpret the definition. Equally when I use FME Data Inspector it shows the whole of the source data. I find this surprising. My understanding is the definition is an integral part of the .lyr file, and expected FME to apply the definition when it reads the file in. My Q: why is FME ignoring the definition?