Licensing options for this format begin with FME Desktop Professional Edition.
The Z+F LaserControl ZFS Reader allows FME to read Z+F LaserControl® ZFS files.
Overview
The format contains binary data consisting of a header block followed by point data. The format supports compression of point data.
ZFS files contain a variable number of properties in its header. These properties are uniquely identified by an index number (index numbers are not strictly consecutive). FME represents all properties present in the file as an attribute on the feature, following the naming convention of zfs_header_n, where n is an index number.
Workbench Format Attributes
It is possible to have thousands of ZFS header properties; therefore, they are not exposed as Workbench format attributes. To expose them in a workspace, use the AttributeExposer transformer.
Properties with the ZFS type of float2 are represented as comma-separated strings. For descriptions of ZFS header properties, locate your FME installation folder, and open plugins/zfs/zfs.ini.
Usage Notes
- The encoding of string properties may be specified in header property 35. If the property contains the string UTF-8, then UTF-8 encoding will be used. If header property 35 is not present, or contains a value other than UTF-8, the encoding is assumed to be system encoding.
- A ZFS file may incorporate color information from a raster file in the same folder. If the ZFS file has a header property that specifies a raster from which to read color information, the ZFS reader will automatically read colors from that file. If the raster file specified in the header is missing, the point cloud will not have color.
- ZFS files contain header properties that specify the valid reflectance (intensity) range for the hardware that produced the file. ZFS files often contain many points outside of this reflectance range. To filter the data to points within the reflectance range, expose the attributes zfs_header_100 (minimum reflectance) and zfs_header_112 (maximum reflectance) using AttributeExposer transformers, then use a PointCloudFilter transformer to filter by intensity.
- ZFS files may contain header properties that specify a parent/child relationship with another ZFS file, or refer to other ZFS files as parts of a split scan. These header properties are exposed as attributes on the feature, and have no special handling. The ZFS reader will not automatically detect relationships or join multiple scans.
- The ZFS reader does not support the use of masks that may be stored in a ZFS file.
Reader Overview
FME considers a single ZFS file to be a dataset. Each dataset contains a single FME point cloud feature.