PointOnLineOverlayer

  

Performs a point-on-line overlay. Each input line is split at its closest place to any point within the specified point tolerance, and attributes are shared between related points and lines (spatial join).

Jump to Configuration

Typical Uses

How does it work?

The PointOnLineOverlayer compares points and lines, splitting the lines where a point falls on (or within a specified distance of) the lines. Each resulting new line receives the attributes of the points that matched the original line, and points receive attributes from the lines (a spatial join). Features (points and lines) also receive a count of the number of matches encountered.

Aggregates can either be deaggregated before processing or rejected. Intersections between linear features are not computed.

ClosedExample: Overlaying points on lines

In this example, we perform an overlay of rapid transit stations points on rapid transit lines. The source data, as seen here, contains three individual transit routes, each one a single line feature.

The station points are close to the lines, but not right on them - generally within a meter.

The stations are connected to the Point input port, and the routes are connected to the Line input port.

In the PointOnLineOverlayer parameters dialog, we enter a tolerance of “5” - meaning 5 meters, as these datasets are in a UTM projection, with ground units in meters. We also choose to merge attributes.

The transit lines are split where they encounter a station within the specified tolerance, as shown here by randomly coloring the output line features. Attributes are shared between the points and lines, as in these point attributes for Renfrew Station, which now has a new attribute indicating that it overlaid the Millennium Line.

Output Lines receive attributes from all of the points that the original unchopped line encountered - see Usage Notes for more detail.

Usage Notes

Z Values and Measures

If the input Line features have measures and/or 3D coordinates, measures and elevations (z values) are interpolated and assigned to points according to the selections made in the Attribute Accumulation parameters.

If Attribute Accumulation Mode is set to Drop Incoming Attributes, the measures and z values will be ignored. If it is set to Merge, Prefix, or Only Use Incoming Attributes, the appropriate values will be calculated and assigned to the points. If a z value is added to a 2D point, it will become 3D.

Choosing a Spatial Transformer

Many transformers can assess spatial relationships and perform spatial joins - analyzing topology, merging attributes, and sometimes modifying geometry. Generally, choosing the one that is most specific to the task you need to accomplish will provide the optimal performance results. If there is more than one way to do it (which is frequently the case), time spent on performance testing alternate methods may be worthwhile.

To correctly analyze spatial relationships, all features should be in the same coordinate system. The Reprojector may be useful for reprojecting features within the workspace.

ClosedSpatial Transformers Comparison Matrix

Transformer

Can Merge Attributes

Alters Geometry

Counts Related Features

Creates List

Supported Types*

Recommended For
SpatialFilter Yes No No No
  • Point
  • Text
  • Curve
  • Area
  • Testing for the existence of spatial relationships between two sets of features, and routing them according to whether they pass or fail the test(s).
SpatialRelator Yes No Yes Yes
  • Point
  • Text
  • Curve
  • Area
  • Identifying the nature of spatial relationships between two sets of features.
AreaOnAreaOverlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes
  • Area
  • Finding polygon overlaps and extracting them into new geometry.
LineOnAreaOverlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes
  • Curve and Area
  • Finding intersections between lines and polygons, and splitting the lines where they intersect with the polygons.
LineOnLineOverlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes
  • Curve
  • Finding intersections between line features, splitting them, and generating new line geometry as well as points representing the intersections.
PointOnAreaOverlayer Yes No Yes Yes
  • Point and Area
  • Text and Area
  • Identifying points that fall within polygons, and merging attributes between them
PointOnLineOverlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes
  • Point and Curve
  • Text and Curve
  • Identifying where points fall on lines, and splitting the lines into new geometry.
PointOnPointOverlayer Yes No Yes Yes
  • Point
  • Text
  • Identifying points in the same location (within a tolerance), and merging attributes between them.
Intersector Yes Yes Yes Yes
  • Point
  • Text
  • Curve
  • Area
  • Finding intersections between all input features, regardless of geometry (optionally including self-intersections), splitting features, and creating new geometry.
Clipper Yes Yes No No
  • Point
  • Text
  • Curve
  • Area
  • Solids
  • Raster
  • Point Cloud
  • Comparing features against a set of Clipper features, and splitting the features at or along the Clipper boundaries. Outputs both new and untouched geometry, identified as either Inside or Outside the Clipper.
NeighborFinder Yes In some cases No Yes
  • Point
  • Text
  • Curve
  • Area
  • Identifying the nearest other feature(s) to each feature being considered, either in another set of features or within the same feature set.
TopologyBuilder Yes Yes No Yes
  • Point
  • Text
  • Curve
  • Area
  • Analyzing spatial relationships between features to compute topology, splitting features and creating new geometry representing topologically significant nodes, edges, and faces, with associated attributes.

* NOTE: Curve includes Lines, Arcs, and Paths. Area includes Polygons, Donuts, and Ellipses.

ClosedThe Effect of Spatial Transformer Choice on Performance

Spatial analysis can be processing-intensive, particularly when a large number of features are involved. If you would like to tune the performance of your workspace, this is a good place to start.

When there are multiple ways to configure a workspace to reach the same goal, it is often best to choose the transformer most specifically suited to your task. As an example, when comparing address points to building polygons, there are a few ways to approach it.

The first example, using a SpatialFilter to test whether or not points fall inside polygons, produces the correct result. But the SpatialFilter is a fairly complex transformer, able to test for multiple conditions and accept a wide range of geometry types. It isn’t optimized for the specific spatial relationship we are analyzing here.

With a SpatialFilter:

The second example uses a PointOnAreaOverlayer, followed by a Tester. The features output are the same as in the first method, but the transformer is optimized for this specific task. The difference in processing time is substantial - from 54.3 seconds in the first configuration, down to 13.7 seconds in the second one.

With a PointOnAreaOverlayer and a Tester:

If performance is an issue in your workspace, look for alternative methods, guided by geometry.

Configuration

Input Ports

ClosedPoint

Point features against which the lines will be compared.

ClosedLine

Line features against which the points will be compared.

Output Ports

ClosedPoint

Point features, with attributes added according to transformer parameter configuration. Geometry is unmodified, unless z-values have been extracted from lines.

ClosedLine

Line features which have been split at the location closest to matching points, with attributes added according to transformer parameter configuration.

Closed<Rejected>

Features with invalid geometries will be rejected and output via this port.

Rejected features will have an fme_rejection_code attribute with one of the following values:

INVALID_POINT_GEOMETRY_TYPE

INVALID_LINE_GEOMETRY_TYPE

INVALID_LINE_GEOMETRY_VERTICES

INVALID_GEOMETRY_DEGENERATE

Rejected Feature Handling: can be set to either terminate the translation or continue running when it encounters a rejected feature. This setting is available both as a default FME option and as a workspace parameter.

Parameters

ClosedTransformer
Group By The default behavior is to use the entire set of features as the group. This option allows you to select attributes that define which groups to form.
Parallel Processing

Select a level of parallel processing to apply. Default is No Parallelism.

ClosedParallel Processing

Note: How parallel processing works with FME: see About Parallel Processing for detailed information.

This parameter determines whether or not the transformer should perform the work across parallel processes. If it is enabled, a process will be launched for each group specified by the Group By parameter.

Parallel Processing Levels

Parameter Number of Processes
No Parallelism 1
Minimal coresThe processor, or CPU, is the physical part of the computer that performs mathematical calculations. It is the most important part of a computer system. Traditional processors have only one core on the processor, meaning that at any given time, only one set of calculations is being performed. If a processor is dual-core, this means the single chip contains hardware for two processors, now called cores to distinguish them from the single chip, running simultaneously, side by side. (Source: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5730257_computer-core-processors_.html) / 2
Moderate exact number of cores
Aggressive cores x 1.5
Extreme cores x 2

For example, on a quad-core machine, minimal parallelism will result in two simultaneous FME processes. Extreme parallelism on an 8-core machine would result in 16 simultaneous processes.

You can experiment with this feature and view the information in the Windows Task Manager and the Workbench Log window.
Input Ordered

No: This is the default behavior. Processing will only occur in this transformer once all input is present.

By Group: This transformer will process input groups in order. Changes of the value of the Group By parameter on the input stream will trigger batch processing on the currently accumulating group. This will improve overall speed if groups are large/complex, but could cause undesired behavior if input groups are not truly ordered. Specifically, on a two input-port transformer, "in order" means that an entire group must reach both ports before the next group reaches either port, for the transformer to work as expected. This may take careful consideration in a workspace, and should not be confused with both port's input streams being ordered individually, but not synchronously.

ClosedConsiderations for Using Input is Ordered By

Using Ordered input can provide performance gains in some scenarios, however, it is not always preferable, or even possible. Consider the following when using it, with both one- and two-input transformers.

Single Datasets/Feature Types: Are generally the optimal candidates for Ordered processing. If you know that the dataset is correctly ordered by the Group By attribute, using Input is Ordered By can improve performance, depending on the size and complexity of the data.

If the input is coming from a database, using ORDER BY in a SQL statement to have the database pre-order the data can be an extremely effective way to improve performance. Consider using a Database Readers with a SQL statement, or the SQLCreator transformer.

Multiple Datasets/Feature Types: Since all features matching a Group By value need to arrive before any features (of any feature type or dataset) belonging to the next group, using Ordering with multiple feature types is more complicated than processing a single feature type.

Multiple feature types and features from multiple datasets will not generally naturally occur in the correct order.

One approach is to send all features through a Sorter, sorting on the expected Group By attribute. The Sorter is a feature-holding transformer, collecting all input features, performing the sort, and then releasing them all. They can then be sent through an appropriate filter (TestFilter, AttributeFilter, GeometryFilter, or others), which are not feature-holding, and will release the features one at a time to the transformer using Input is Ordered By, now in the expected order.

The processing overhead of sorting and filtering may negate the performance gains you will get from using Input is Ordered By. In this case, using Group By without using Input is Ordered By may be the equivalent and simpler approach.

In all cases when using Input is Ordered By, if you are not sure that the incoming features are properly ordered, they should be sorted (if a single feature type), or sorted and then filtered (for more than one feature or geometry type).

As with many scenarios, testing different approaches in your workspace with your data is the only definitive way to identify performance gains.
ClosedParameters
Overlap Count Attribute The Overlap Count Attribute added to output linear features holds the number of point features that were near to it. The Overlap Count Attribute added to output point features holds the number of linear features that the point was near to.
Point Tolerance The Point Tolerance value is compared to the distance from the lines to the points, and the lines will be segmented if the distance is less than or equal to the Point Tolerance value. When such a match occurs, the attributes of the segmented lines are merged with the points and the attributes of the points are merged with the lines.
Aggregate Handling

Choose how aggregate geometries are to be handled.

Deaggregate: Decompose aggregates into their individual components.

Reject: Do not process aggregates and output them via the <Rejected> port.

ClosedAttribute Accumulation

If attributes on the incoming and original feature share the same name, but are not geometry attributes that start with fme_, then they are deemed conflicted.

Note: On the PointOnLineOverlayer, Attribute Accumulation applies to the measures on a point in a similar way to how it applies to the attributes on a feature.

If measures on the point and line share the same name, then they are deemed conflicted.

The resolution of conflicted measures on points occurs in the same manner as the resolution of conflicted attributes on features. It is resolved according to the Accumulation Mode and Conflict Resolution values.

Accumulation Mode

Drop Incoming Attributes: Features retain their original attributes, and do not receive new attributes.

Merge Incoming Attributes: The original feature will retain all of its own un-conflicted attributes, and will additionally acquire any un-conflicted attributes that the incoming feature has. This mode will handle conflicted attributes based on the Conflict Resolution parameter.

Prefix Incoming Attributes: The original feature will retain all of its own attributes. In addition, the original will acquire attributes reflecting the incoming feature’s attributes, with the name prefixed with the Prefix parameter.

Only Use Incoming Attributes: The original feature will have all of its attributes removed, except geometry attributes that start with fme_. Then, all of the attributes from one (arbitrary) incoming feature will be placed onto the original.

Conflict Resolution

Use Original: If a conflict occurs, the original values will be maintained.

Use Incoming: If a conflict occurs, the values of the incoming will be transferred onto the original.

Prefix If the Accumulation Mode parameter is set to Prefix Incoming, this value will prefix attributes and measures that are being added to the original feature from the incoming feature.

 

Generate List on Output ‘Point’

When enabled, adds a list attribute to the Point output features, and the attributes of each line matching an output point are added to that point's list.

‘Point’ List Name

Enter a name for the list attribute.

Note: List attributes are not accessible from the output schema in Workbench unless they are first processed using a transformer that operates on them, such as ListExploder or ListConcatenator. All list attribute transformers are displayed in the Contents pane of the Transformer Help under Lists. Alternatively, AttributeExposer can be used.
Add To 'Point' List

All Attributes: All attributes will be added to the output Point features.

Selected Attributes: Enables the Selected Attributes parameter, where specific attributes may be chosen for inclusion.

Selected Attributes Enabled when Add To 'Point' List is set to Selected Attributes. Specify the attributes you wish to be included.

 

Generate List on Output ‘Line’

When enabled, adds a list attribute to the Line output features, and the attributes of each point matching an original input line are added to each output line created from it.

‘Line’ List Name

Enter a name for the list attribute.

Note: List attributes are not accessible from the output schema in Workbench unless they are first processed using a transformer that operates on them, such as ListExploder or ListConcatenator. All list attribute transformers are displayed in the Contents pane of the Transformer Help under Lists. Alternatively, AttributeExposer can be used.
Add To 'Line' List

All Attributes: All attributes will be added to the output Line features.

Selected Attributes: Enables the Selected Attributes parameter, where specific attributes may be chosen for inclusion.

Selected Attributes Enabled when Add To 'Line' List is set to Selected Attributes. Specify the attributes you wish to be included.

Editing Transformer Parameters

Using a set of menu options, transformer parameters can be assigned by referencing other elements in the workspace. More advanced functions, such as an advanced editor and an arithmetic editor, are also available in some transformers. To access a menu of these options, click beside the applicable parameter. For more information, see Transformer Parameter Menu Options.

Defining Values

There are several ways to define a value for use in a Transformer. The simplest is to simply type in a value or string, which can include functions of various types such as attribute references, math and string functions, and workspace parameters. There are a number of tools and shortcuts that can assist in constructing values, generally available from the drop-down context menu adjacent to the value field.

ClosedHow to Set Parameter Values

Using the Text Editor

The Text Editor provides a convenient way to construct text strings (including regular expressions) from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and constants, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Text Editor

Using the Arithmetic Editor

The Arithmetic Editor provides a convenient way to construct math expressions from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and feature functions, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Arithmetic Editor

Conditional Values

Set values depending on one or more test conditions that either pass or fail.

Parameter Condition Definition Dialog

Content

Expressions and strings can include a number of functions, characters, parameters, and more - whether entered directly in a parameter or constructed using one of the editors.

ClosedContent Types

String Functions

These functions manipulate and format strings.

Special Characters

A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor.

Math Functions

Math functions are available in both editors.

Math Operators

These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor.

FME Feature Functions

These return primarily feature-specific values.

FME Parameters

FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used.
Working with User Parameters Create your own editable parameters.

Reference

ClosedRelated Transformers

AreaOnAreaOverlayer

Bufferer

Clipper

Intersector

LineOnAreaOverlayer

LineOnLineOverlayer

NeighborFinder

PointOnAreaOverlayer

PointOnPointOverlayer

SpatialFilter

SpatialRelator

TopologyBuilder

Processing Behavior

Group-Based

Feature Holding

Yes
Dependencies  
FME Licensing Level FME Professional Edition and above
Aliases  
History  
Categories

Filters and Joins

Spatial Analysis

FME Knowledge Center

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Examples may contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Vancouver