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We’re taking a moment to celebrate some incredible members of our community who have gone above and beyond in their learning journey. These FME users have officially earned the Gold Webinar Watcher Badge - meaning they’ve watched 50 Safe Software webinars! There are only 10 users in the entire community with this badge - congratulations to: ​@vvv ​@sigbono ​@danii ​@gbj1717 ​@j.botterill ​@dana ​@geomancer ​@geogaard ​@hlouie ​@danilo_fme And a special shoutout to ​@dana who has reached the Platinum Badge level for watching 100+ webinars! Here’s what Elizabeth Hamming (​@ehamming), who runs our webinar program, has to say about this milestone... If you’re looking to level up your FME skills, our webinar series is the perfect way to do it! With 300+ live and on-demand sessions, you’ll gain the insights you need to tackle your biggest data challenges - straight from our experts and fellow FME users. Tip: At the end of each webinar, you’ll receive a reward code. Make sure to redeem it on

How did you engage with the FME Community in 2024? Now you can find out with your 2024 FME Community End-of-Year Recap! Built by ​@mark2atsafe, the recap page is powered by FME and integrates it with the same type of custom community pages as the 12 Days of FME Contest. Check out your personalized stats here, including: Questions Asked & Answered Votes on Your Questions Your Most Upvoted Question Categories You Contributed To Events You Attended General Stats for the FME Community You must be logged in to see your stats - otherwise, you’ll get a fun look at the FME Lizard’s activity instead. See how you compare! For this week’s Question of the Week: Share some highlights from your 2024 recap in the comments below. Thank you for being part of the FME Community in 2024! We hope you found it valuable and inspiring, and we can't wait to see what you do in 2025.

Hi FME Community! Happy New Year. We hope you enjoyed a warm and happy holiday season! In the spirit of the new year, this week’s Question of the Week is: What’s your New Year’s resolution when it comes to using FME? Are there new skills you want to learn? Features you’d love to explore? Improvements you’d like to see in the product? Tell us in the comments below. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our January Questions of the Week by January 31 at 5:00 pm PDT to be entered in this month’s draw. Answer your first question and you’ll get the Socializer (Ice Breaker) badge. Answer five questions and you’ll get the Socializer (Talker) badge.

As of August 2025, the last version of FME which supports 32-bit systems and Python 2.7, FME 2021.2.6, will be out of support and retired. This means that, as of August 2025, 32-bit versions of FME will no longer be supported. To continue to receive technical support for FME, please upgrade your operating systems to 64-bit and download a newer version of FME. If you have any other questions or concerns, please post them in the comments below.

Hi FME Community, We’re reaching out to learn more about FME user groups and how Safe Software can better support their success. If you are part of or lead an FME user group, we’d love your input! This short survey will help us better understand how user groups are structured, the challenges you face, and what resources would be most valuable to you. Your feedback will directly shape how we support and grow the FME user group community. Take the Survey The survey should only take a few minutes to complete, and your insights will help us provide the tools, resources, and connections user groups need to succeed. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at danielle.leroux@safe.com. Thank you for your time and for being part of the FME community!

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We’re honoured to be nominated for EM360Tech's Q4 2024 Content Awards in the "Most Engaging Podcast" category! 🎉 This recognition is for our podcast, How FME is Revolutionizing Omaha's Mobility Projects, and we couldn’t be more proud. Your vote can help us take home the win! 🏆 Cast your vote here: https://lnkd.in/gKwTfXXX Thank you for your support - let’s make it happen together! Voting closes on Wednesday, January 15.

Welcome to our January FME Community User Spotlight! Every month, we’ll be spotlighting a user in the community whose active participation and helpful contributions have been invaluable to the community. We’re excited to highlight their experiences and insights! User Spotlight: Danilo de Lima ​@danilo_fme What’s your name? Danilo de Lima What company do you currently work for? Solutial What’s your current job role and title? Commercial Manager Tell us more about what you do and how you use FME? I started my work with the FME Platform over 18 years ago. At first, I only carried out a few conversions from one format to another. Over time, I reached a high level on the platform, participating in complex integrations and Augmented Reality projects. Currently, I am the Commercial Manager at the company, Solutial. Our company is a reseller here in Brazil and South America. Why did you join the FME Community? Initially, I joined the FME Community to ask some questions. Over the years, I log i

Hi FME Community, Are you ready? The Peak of Data and AI 2025 is less than four months away! Be among the first to witness groundbreaking product launches from FME experts and Safe Software CEO Don Murray as they debut for the very first time. Join us May 6-8 at the Hyatt Regency Seattle for the premier event dedicated to data transformation, integration, automation, and innovation. Over three dynamic days, data enthusiasts, experts, and thought leaders will gather to explore cutting-edge technologies and build connections that drive data-driven solutions. Disruptions are coming. Don’t miss out - Early Bird pricing is available now through February 7, 2025! PS. We’ll also be hosting some fun, FME Community-exclusive activities at the Peak. Stay tuned for more details!

Hello balloonists. Here’s a day 8 video recap. Today I cover the fixes I made for bad reports, the latest standings, and I have a meeting in 30 seconds, so you’ll have to watch it to find out what else! Cheers Mark

Hello FME friends, If you remember, the 12 Days of FME contest for 2024 has a special prize for data visualization. The idea is to download some of the data from the contest and (preferably using FME) analyze it and visualize it. The best visualization wins a US$100 gift card! It just occurred to us that you don’t even need to have launched a balloon! You can do a visualization anyway! This part of the contest is open to anyone. So, this thread is where I suggest you post your visualization entries. It might be a simple image, a link to an online map, a video animation, or…. anything you can think of. Here are some ideas I came up with. Feel free to use any of these, or create your own: Did any balloons crash into each other? I didn't test for that. If not, what was the smallest distance between two balloons? Assume that a balloon is 20m in diameter and 30m in height. Can you visualize who did the best airport avoidance? i.e. who would have crossed over an airport, if they had not made

The race is over, and the 328 balloons have ‘landed’! Over the past two weeks, FME users from around the globe took to the virtual skies in our 12 Days of FME Contest. Pilots navigated their virtual hot air balloons in an epic journey powered by FME Flow - racing for distance, speed, and more. Now, it’s time to announce the winners ! Top Point Scorer: With an impressive 330 points, Team Cloudchaser (​@holdsy) takes the top spot and wins a stunning Mova Globe! Second Place: With 308 points, Team Community Cats (​@cmkenned7) claims second place and also wins a Mova Globe. Furthest Distance: Team Boskalis (​@nielsgerrits) travelled the furthest distance of 34,901.9 km and wins a $50 Amazon gift card. Fastest Balloon: Team Jessica (​@jessicap) travelled at the fastest speed of 374.6 kph and wins a $50 Amazon gift card. Country Flyovers: Flying over an impressive 32 countries, Team CloudConnector (​@ulfme) takes the prize for most countries crossed and wins a $50 Amazon gift card. Safe Offi

Hi FME Community, As you may know, our 12 Days of FME Contest is well underway! You can still register and launch your balloon. The contest has a special prize for data visualization and that’s what we’re theming this Question of the Week around. Download some of the data from the contest and (preferably using FME) analyze it and visualize it. The best visualization wins a $100 USD gift card (plus you’ll also be eligible for our monthly Question of the Week draw)! You don’t even need to launch a balloon to participate. This part of the contest is open to anyone. Visualization entries posted on this thread and the contest thread will be entered into the contest! Find some ideas here. We look forward to seeing what you come up with! The contest ends on Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 8:30 am PST. Data visualization entries will be accepted until Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 8:30 am PST.

Hi FME Community, This will be our last Question of the Week for 2024! What’s been a highlight of your year? Personal or professional, FME-related or not, we’d love to hear. Thanks for participating in the Question of the Week and our 12 Days of FME Contest! The 12 Days of FME wrapped up today, but there’s still time to submit your data visualizations. We’ll announce all the prize winners by Friday, December 20. We’ll be back in January with a new Question of the Week. Until then, Happy Holidays!

Hi folks. So, scoring will shut down at 08:30am PST this morning. From then on, the balloons will float, and the map will update, but the leaderboards and records will remain at their final scores. Unfortunately… I managed to shut it down at 08:30am UTC by mistake. Sorry. So the scoreboards will not have updated properly for the last 6 hours or so. No points have been lost. Just the displays wouldn’t have shown the correct scores. They are correct now. Apologies for that. Good luck for the final hour. Mark

Do you want to help shape the future of FME? At Safe Software, we are always looking to improve our product and provide the best possible experience for you. Your feedback plays a crucial role in this process! Take our short survey to share what’s working well, what needs improvement, and what you’d love to see next in FME. It only takes 3-5 minutes, and we’ll be personally reviewing every response. If you’re interested, you can also opt-in for a follow-up conversation with our Product Management team to discuss your feedback further.

Oops. I just remembered that I made a recap video, but didn’t post a link to it here! Things are getting very exciting as we head into the last 24 hours of the contest!

FME friends and balloon fanatics! It is getting very exciting now, with under 72 hours of the contest remaining. So here’s a very brief post about the latest news… Points The top of the leaderboard is switching about on a regular basis now. Cloudchaser (296 pts) is currently top, heading eastwards over Canada with very little in their way (countries or airports). CommunityCats (294) had dropped down the order until… they arrived in North America. That’s 10 points for the continent and 5 points for the USA… sadly reduced by passing straight over an airport. But they are now 2nd. SaskUAV (284) in 3rd also reached America, but is issuing commands obviously designed to avoid airports, and seems in a good position. If they reach the Canadian border without an airport hit… who knows? Safe SwanAbout just issued a command that took them straight into the path of at least 2 airports (Bellingham and Abbotsford). It’s not to pick up airports, in fact, if you know where those airports are, it will

Hi FME Community! Registration is open for the 12 Days of FME Contest 👏 Sign-up here to prepare for the official balloon launch on December 3. About the Contest Ready, set FLY! Join us for a fun-filled 12 Days of FME Community Contest! From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community will be hosting its annual winter contest - a balloon race powered by FME Flow. Grab your virtual hot air balloon and compete in real-time with other users worldwide as you pilot your balloon on a thrilling journey around the world! How It Works Login to your FME Community account or sign-up for a free account if you’re not yet a registered user. Visit the 12 Days of FME Contest page and click the Register button . Choose your team name and home country for your balloon. Come back on December 3 when the contest goes live. Choose a launch location for your balloon or let the system launch it for you! Note: to start everyone in the same general area, launch locations must fall somewhere within Great

FME friends, We’re getting close to the end of the 12 Days contest, and here is the latest news… Updates I made a few small updates to the system yesterday. The Closest Shave results were fixed to be correct and now show the top 10 users. I added a new layer to the map: Other Balloons (12 Hours) which shows just the last 12 hours of data. It’s great for decluttering the map. It’s also got a thicker line width, so you can add it to the Other Balloons layer and see both at once. I added the oxygen remaining number to the Leaderboard, so you can see how much oxygen the leaders still have. Weather The leading balloons are all heading over North America right now. If they can make it just halfway across, there appears to be a great weather system that may bring them over the Atlantic and back to Europe. That’s the winds at 4,200m, so no need for oxygen. The 10,000m winds look even better - with the slight chance of a new speed record - provided you have oxygen to get you to that level. Chec

Welcome to our December FME Community User Spotlight! Every month, we’ll be spotlighting a user in the community whose active participation and helpful contributions have been invaluable to the community. We’re excited to highlight their experiences and insights! User Spotlight: Birgit Ligtvoet ​@birgit What’s your name? Birgit Ligtvoet What company do you currently work for? Boskalis What’s your current job role and title? GIS Specialist Tell us more about what you do and how you use FME? I work in a team of 12 GIS Specialists of which about 3/4 work on providing data to both our colleagues and clients through GIS viewers. I am a little bit more on the technical side of things and I often focus on automating things and making standard tools for either my direct colleagues or people in the rest of the company. To do this I of course use FME but I also make use of the ArcGIS REST api, the VertiGIS studio suite, the Autodesk construction cloud api and a lot more. Basically, I spend time

Hello FME friends, Here’s a short written recap about where we are so far… Outage Yesterday (10th Dec) there was a short period when API calls weren’t working. It may have left some balloons without positions for a few hours. I really apologise for that. I’ve updated my code and it shouldn’t happen again. Current Weather The jet stream that has carried so many balloons around the world persists, but suddenly comes to a halt at the eastern side of the Pacific. Some balloons are getting shunted north, some south, and a lucky few are in a narrow slot that continues on across Canada and its 50 provinces to the south (joke!) I think the best scoring opportunities lie in continuing to the east, but it will take some delicate maneuvering to navigate and keep going in that direction. This could be the most important part of the game so far! Current Leaders I wanted to list the current leaders in each prize category. Top Points Scorers: Dirkdeballonvaarder (269 pts) and CommunityCats (263). But

Hi FME Community, Our 12 Days of FME Contest is officially live! Register and launch your balloon here . This week’s Question of the Week: share your 12 Days of FME team name in the comments below. About the Contest From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community is hosting our annual winter contest: a balloon race powered by FME Flow. Launch your virtual balloon and steer it around the world, scoring points for different activities. FME is used to manage the contest - from simulating the balloon travel (using an API called Tawhiri) to providing reports to contestants during the game. You can do as little as register a balloon and watch it float off into the distance. But, if you want to be a little more active, you can check out weather forecasts and predictions and change the altitude of your balloon to give you the best speed and direction. What You Can Win We have some incredible prizes up for grabs! A Mova globe ($220 USD value) will be awarded to two grand prize winners w

Hi FME Community! On November 27, we’ll be opening registration for the 12 Days of FME ! From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community will be hosting its annual winter contest - a balloon race powered by FME Flow. Grab your virtual hot air balloon and compete in real-time with other users worldwide as you pilot your balloon on a thrilling journey around the world! In anticipation of the contest, this week’s Question of the Week is: If you could fly your hot air balloon to any country in the world, where would you go and why? Share your answer in the comments. New to the Question of the Week? Every week, we’ll post a simple but thought-provoking question that could be about your FME journey, the power of spatial data, FME innovation, or the future of FME. Each weekly question you answer earns you an entry in our monthly draw for exclusive Safe swag ($50 value) and points toward badges! Answer our November Questions of the Week by Saturday, November 30 at 5:00 pm PDT to be ent

Hello balloonists. Here’s a recap from day 4 of the 12 Days of FME. Today I explain the important topic of oxygen supplies, and how to time your balloon commands to get the most out of these precious resources. Don’t forget to check the video timeline for markers for the different sections. The oxygen discussion starts at 08:45, for example.