I am having a bit of trouble with a workspace in which i am converting from an ESRI Shape file to an ESRI Geodatabase. My initial dataset is 1 file with 3D polygons as the geometry (Polygon ZM). Each face has an attribute which defines it as either a wall or a face. Additionally, i have an attribute for each face that is a relationship to an underlying 2D building footprint (a parent footprint ID). What this means is that i end up having multiple polygons with a reference to a single building footprint.
I need my final feature classes in a Geodatabase to be as follows:-
- 2 separate feature classes for roofs and walls
- all walls with the same parent attribute to be merged into 1 feature
- all roofs with the same parent attribute to be merged into 1 feature
- all geometries in walls and roofs to be Multipatches
In order to do this i have used an attributeFilter transformer to split my walls and roofs apart. I then had 2 streams of data being processed. My next step is to try and merge features with the same parent id together into 1 object. What i am essentially trying to do here is a 3D Dissolve. Unfortunately the Dissolve transformer doesn't work with 3d geometry. I've also looked at the Aggregator transformer, with which i had some success, until i import my data into the geodatabase. If i visualise the data at this stage (just before import to the geodatabase) i get exactly what i'm after. If i view the resultant geodatabase though i get some weird kind of messy data, as if the geodatabase can't interpret the geometry correctly. I've also tried the meshmerger transformer and had similar results.
This has led me to trying to find out some more information about geometries within FME and how you can convert from one to another.
I'm certain my problem is all geometry related, but i am still confused as to some of the terminology used. There is some information in the Help manuals and online, but this can be somewhat confusing. For example if i used the facereplacer transformer to change the geometry i can go from a polygon to a face. But i can't find anywhere where the difference between the 2 is described.
Anyway, if anyone has any ideas as to my problem as described above that would be much appreciated. Also, if there are some resources that explain the geometry model and what you can convert from/to/between and which transformers in FME that would be fantastic.
Regards
Dave