I'm trying to clip our odd-shaped orthophoto and have the result converted to ECW format. However, I have not been having any success.

I did a quick search and found this topic. It looks like nodata does not work for ECW, see the documentation. It also links to this topic, it seems you need to use an Alpha Band for transparency in ECW.

You can do this using the RasterBandAdder and RasterExpressionEvaluator.

The Alpha Band defines the transparency from 0 (transparent) to 255 (not transparent). So the cell values are 0.

Now set Red=Red, Green=Green, Blue=Blue and Alpha=0 when R,G,B = 0,0,0.

if (A[0]==0&&A[1]==0&&A[2]==0,0,255)

If you have NoData values, I would use those instead.

Yep, this - you need to make sure that the alpha mask is correctly applied.

If you think that you are doing the right thing you can read the output back into FME and check the bands. I have seen cases where the ALPHA band has been mislabelled as a UINT8 band so FME doesn't interpret it properly.

My tip would be to add the ALPHA8 band before you apply the clip. Use the RasterBandAdder to add an alpha band with value 255, pass thought the clipper. The cells which get clipped should now have 0 for the ALPHA8 band.

Nielgerrits:

Thanks a million for not only your advice, but your examples too. My big struggle with FME is not so much the logic, bur rather knowing which transformer to use, and when. That and also learning what syntax to use when configuring those transformers.

So your examples were HUGELY effective for me...I wish SAFE would use more examples in the online help too. So I ran the process with just the transformers you suggested (and using your configuration examples) and it worked exactly as I was hoping it would work as per below:

Your examples saved me hours more work tweaking the configuration :-).

Thanks again.

virtualcitymatt:

Thank you. I think I was making this mistake a few times before too...not applying the correct alpha mask. I was trying to use Alpha8 (as per many online suggestions) but sometimes when I would tweak the transformer (or use a different one) that setting would change, and the result (30 minutes later) would be a mess. I was growing tired of creating a mess 30 minutes each time...it makes for a long day :-).

You're welcome :-) You posted a clear question, what often helps a ton. I also always struggle with getting new things to work so I also prefer having a clear example to start from and tweak it to my needs.