1Spatial Internal Feature Format (IFF) Feature Representation

IFF features consist of geometry and attributes of feature. The attribute names are defined in the feature type dialog, and there is a value for each attribute in each IFF feature. In addition, each IFF feature contains several special attributes to hold the type of the geometric entity and its display parameters. All IFF features contain the iff_type attribute, which identifies the geometric type.

Depending on the geometric type, the feature contains additional attributes (in addition to the generic FME feature attributes that FME Workbench adds to all features [see About Feature Attributes]) specific to the geometric type. These are described below.

Symbol

iff_type: iff_symbol

IFF symbol features are point features that specify a single x and y coordinate in addition to any associated user-defined attributes.

There are no special FME attribute names used to control the IFF symbol settings.

Lines

iff_type: iff_line

IFF line features specify linear features defined by a sequence of x and y coordinates.

The following table lists the special FME attribute names used to control the IFF line settings.

Attribute Name

Contents

iff_size

The line thickness.

Range: Integer

Default: No default

Text

iff_type: iff_text

IFF text features are used to specify annotation information. Although IFF files can have features that have more than one set of annotation information, only simple text features can be written. The IFF reader is able to read features with more than one set of annotation information by splitting them into separate features. But the IFF writer will not merge these separated features when writing, only features with only a set of annotation information are written.

The following table lists the special FME attribute names used to control the IFF text settings.

Attribute Name

Contents

iff_rot

The text label’s rotation.

Range: 0.00...360.00

Default: 0

iff_text_string

The text label.

Range: Maximum of 256 characters

Default: Blank

iff_size

The text size.

Range: Integer

Default: No default

iff_text_code

The text code value.

Range: Integer

Default: No default

iff_text_cmpnt

The text component.

Range: Integer

Default: No default

iff_text_res1

Reserved space for future use.

Range: Maximum of 256 characters

Default: No default

iff_text_res2

Reserved space for future use.

Range: Maximum of 256 characters

Default: No default