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Exporting smallworld data to Esri Geodatabase (Personal Geodb)

L
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Hello,

I want to export Smallworld (4.3) objects to a Esri Geodatabase (Personal Geodb) with FME 2014. Creating the database with the objects seems to go without a lot of problems, but the objects don't have any geometries. During the initial setup and run of my workbench, the logfile showed that the attribute 'fme_db_operation' needed a value, so I added a 'INSERT'. This helped in creating the database, but the geometries weren't created.

When using Smallworld 4.0, I didn't have those issues when exporting to the same format, so I don't really know how to get the correct result.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks a lot!

Luc

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Best answer by markatsafe 22 June 2016, 17:12

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12 replies

M

I've asked our in-house Smallworld experts, but in the meantime can I point you to this article to see if there is anything you might have missed from the setup?

M

The other suggestion (or question) is whether you get geometry if you route the output of the translation directly to the Data Inspector/Universal Viewer? It would help to determine whether it's the Smallworld reading or Geodatabase writing that's at fault.

L
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Hi,

Thanks for your answer.

I think I found out what's going 'wrong'. The Data Inspector (FME(R) 2014 SP2 (20140623 - Build 14339 - WIN32) shows the geometries that come directly from Smallworld, but when I open the resulting geodatabase in the Data Inspector, I get the following notice in the view 'There is no geometry in this View'. The Inspector shows the attributes in the table.

Opening the mdb in ArcGis shows the geometries, so the translation works.

Any idea why the Data Inspector won't show the objects?

erik_jan
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Userlevel 2
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What SmallWorld export option in FME are you using.

The SpatialBiz Smallworld plugin supoorts exporting all objects from SmallWorld into FME (and out to any format) from SmallWorld 3.3 and higher.

I have used the plugin to export Smallworld to GDB multiple times.

Have a look at this: http://www.spatialbiz.com/spatialbiz-plug-in.html

For any additional help use: support@spatialbiz.com

L
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What SmallWorld export option in FME are you using.

The SpatialBiz Smallworld plugin supoorts exporting all objects from SmallWorld into FME (and out to any format) from SmallWorld 3.3 and higher.

I have used the plugin to export Smallworld to GDB multiple times.

Have a look at this: http://www.spatialbiz.com/spatialbiz-plug-in.html

For any additional help use: support@spatialbiz.com

I use the FME Smallworld-version as is. Getting data in and out Smallworld works well, but once in a while I come across some minor issues.

A few years ago I attended the SpatialBiz webinar. This plugin certainly looks very interesting and practical to use. Maybe something to purchase in the near future.

Thanks!

M

Hi,

Thanks for your answer.

I think I found out what's going 'wrong'. The Data Inspector (FME(R) 2014 SP2 (20140623 - Build 14339 - WIN32) shows the geometries that come directly from Smallworld, but when I open the resulting geodatabase in the Data Inspector, I get the following notice in the view 'There is no geometry in this View'. The Inspector shows the attributes in the table.

Opening the mdb in ArcGis shows the geometries, so the translation works.

Any idea why the Data Inspector won't show the objects?

I don't know why that should be, no. If you open the log window in the Data Inspector, does it show an error or warning? My best suggestion is to open the feature types in the Geodatabase writer and see what the geometry type is defined as in there. It might be that FME can't detect the geometry type in Smallworld, and sets something random for the Geodatabase output. ArcGIS is happy with the result but it's not technically correct so FME won't read it back. That's my best guess.

M
Badge +2

When viewing your Geodb MDB in Data Inspector:

- make sure you're using the Geodb MDB reader and not the MS Access reader!

- in the Feature Table - can you see a geometry on the feature or is the actual geometry null

M
Badge +2

Hi,

Thanks for your answer.

I think I found out what's going 'wrong'. The Data Inspector (FME(R) 2014 SP2 (20140623 - Build 14339 - WIN32) shows the geometries that come directly from Smallworld, but when I open the resulting geodatabase in the Data Inspector, I get the following notice in the view 'There is no geometry in this View'. The Inspector shows the attributes in the table.

Opening the mdb in ArcGis shows the geometries, so the translation works.

Any idea why the Data Inspector won't show the objects?

When viewing your Geodb MDB in Data Inspector:

- make sure you're using the Geodb MDB reader and not the MS Access reader!

- in the Feature Table - can you see a geometry on the feature or is the actual geometry null

L
Badge

I don't know why that should be, no. If you open the log window in the Data Inspector, does it show an error or warning? My best suggestion is to open the feature types in the Geodatabase writer and see what the geometry type is defined as in there. It might be that FME can't detect the geometry type in Smallworld, and sets something random for the Geodatabase output. ArcGIS is happy with the result but it's not technically correct so FME won't read it back. That's my best guess.

I wanted to post some log-info, so I tried to open the mdb-result again in the Data Inspector. To my astonishment, the objects were shown in the view(!).

What I noticed, is that now the Inspector only loaded the mdb-table that contains the exported objects. Yesterday all the tables (GDB_FeatureClasses and a lot more) in the mdb were loaded. Why this happens isn't clear to me.

M
Badge +2

Hi,

Thanks for your answer.

I think I found out what's going 'wrong'. The Data Inspector (FME(R) 2014 SP2 (20140623 - Build 14339 - WIN32) shows the geometries that come directly from Smallworld, but when I open the resulting geodatabase in the Data Inspector, I get the following notice in the view 'There is no geometry in this View'. The Inspector shows the attributes in the table.

Opening the mdb in ArcGis shows the geometries, so the translation works.

Any idea why the Data Inspector won't show the objects?

that is because in one case you opened the MDB file using the MS Access reader and in the other you opened the MDB file using the Personnal Geodb (MDB) reader. A very easy mistake as I think FME defaults to MS Access reader when it sees MDB files.

M
Badge +2

When viewing your Geodb MDB in Data Inspector:

- make sure you're using the Geodb MDB reader and not the MS Access reader!

- in the Feature Table - can you see a geometry on the feature or is the actual geometry null

that is because in one case you opened the MDB file using the MS Access reader and in the other you opened the MDB file using the Personnal Geodb (MDB) reader. A very easy mistake as I think FME defaults to MS Access reader when it sees MDB files.

L
Badge

that is because in one case you opened the MDB file using the MS Access reader and in the other you opened the MDB file using the Personnal Geodb (MDB) reader. A very easy mistake as I think FME defaults to MS Access reader when it sees MDB files.

Ok! That's the mistake I've made.

Thanks a lot!

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