Export Workbench As Graphic

PNG, DWG and Visio would be excellent.

Additionally, it would be helpful to be able export workspace workflow to a diagram--i.e., database diagram.

Ultimately, a tool or additional program that is used to assist user organize and describe the FME Desktop workspace.

The File>Print menu option is very limited because it uses the system printer dialogs. In addition the PDF is rendered as an image. I would like to be able to print a nice poster of my workbench masterpiece. I have tried hard but the text does not scale correctly and the interface seems most happy paging the canvas into little pieces.

The first step would be to export a vector based PDF so that it scales better , but wait we already have better tools inside FME! Here is my much more radical idea - forget the File>Print route.

We could think of the *.FMW format as a new spatial format just discovered! Why not make a new custom CanvasReader? In principle all the layout is in the comment lines. Or ask Safe boffins to add one for us...

But wait... there is already a Canvas Reader written! It is built into the software and is used to draw the canvas or the Print Preview dialog. All we have to ask for is a FFS output on the canvas engine instead of a screen rendering and call it a Reader.

Once the canvas is a FFS dataset we can direct it to any writer, not just a PDF. It could be SVG, DXF, or render it as an image. We could set the page size as a parameter, use the PDFStyler and alter any of the graphics, maybe enhance some paths, remove background colours that don't print well, put halos on the text. How amazing, why didn't I think of that first? Oh yes, that is the Big Idea that Someone had in a thermal pool in Palm Springs.

Custom transformers would have their own little canvas, perhaps as multiple featureclasses. Now what about a Navigator Tree as well?

I look forward to seeing a prototype at the conference written by Dimitri!

Would be great as SVG output.