Add 32 and 64-bit on the ICON of all exe-files

Our read of the tea leaves is that the need for 32 bit FME is on the decline. Advances in ArcGIS mean that 64 bit FME can work with ArcObjects and Geodatabase (just install the ArcGIS 64 bit background processing as part of your desktop install). And ArcGIS Pro is 64 bit only. Aside from that, there are reasonably few other 32 bit only bits of functionality. And in FME 2016 we've made huge advances in FME's ability work well with huge amounts of RAM (which was one reason why some folks stuck with FME 32 bit in the past).

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We could combine them into one UBER installer but we're leaning against doing that for reasons I outline in my comment below. We think we're nearing the end of the 32 bit phase of computing and will double down on our efforts to make sure FME 64 just does everything you'd ever want. Do let us know what forces you to have ot use FME 32 and we'll look to see what we can do...

Speaking personally, I'd say I use the 32-bit version at least 90% of the time at the moment, mainly because we use ProjectWise for almost everything, and the SELECT Editions don't accept File Geodatabases, so we're using Personal Geodatabases for a lot of data, which are 32-bit only. It does sound as though the 64-bit ArcObjects stuff fixes a lot of other use cases though.

Esri have stated that for the most part ArcGIS Desktop will remain 32-bit, that it will remain supported for the foreseeable future, and that ArcGIS Pro isn't replacing ArcGIS Desktop (you can decide for yourself whether you believe any of that!)

Honestly though, I suspect 32-bit will continue to rear its ugly head for another 5 years or so at least.

Would be great with a meny - when starting any FME Worbench a popup will show the available installed versions of FME Workbench to run, same with FME Data Inspector

Would logging them into a log be helpful, if you could then click the one you wanted instead? I think most of the time it woudl be annoying to have to dismiss a dialog. Is the issue that you have shortcuts that cause you to start one you didn't mean to start?

In FME 2016.0 the 32 bit icons are decorated as such. We'll consider the other suggestions here as to how to handle multiple FME installations in the nicest way.

what about taskbar or desktop icons? I'm using this on Windows 7. Also I still have a 32bit version of office. So if I'm working with spreadsheets or Access then I have to use the 32 bit FME.

seems '32' has not been added to the icon for FME 2016.1 b16492 WIN32...

You were right! We'll have this fixed in the next update.

I have just tried a startup script that used arcpy to index a field before I used Joiner. (It appears to be unnecessary as it turns out, joiner does its own index). The main point of my comment is that to use arcpy in Python startup scripts you need to add to the python path and that is different for 32 and 64 bit versions of arcpy.

I found that I could copy ArcGIS10.3.pth from the site-packages for 32 bit into the C:\\apps\\FME2016\\fmepython27\\lib\\site-packages folder

and DBGGT64.pth into the C:\\apps\\FME2016X64\\fmepython27\\lib\\site-packagesfolder for 64 bit.

This then enabled arcpy etc to be found without setting other paths and system variables Maybe this could be a how-to somewhere?

Hi Kimo,

This is good information and thank you for sharing it. I know that using arcpy can sometimes be tricky and we will track this for addition to a new article or possibly adding to this article: https://knowledge.safe.com/articles/802/how-to-set-different-custom-python-interpreters-fo.html

Hm, I cant see this on the latest 2016 release and on 2017... Would be great with a universal starter - Ie FME Workbench gives a popup when starting that is shown for 4 seconds to choose another installed version if needed.

I have added some numbers etc on my installations like attached - that might be the defaults?

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