Feature Representation

In addition to the generic FME feature attributes that FME Workbench adds to all features (see About Feature Type Attributes), this format also adds format-specific attributes (Format Attributes).

PDF features consist of geometry and attributes. The attribute names are defined in the DEF line and there is a value for each attribute in each PDF feature. In addition, each PDF feature contains several special attributes to hold the type of the geometric entity.

All PDF features contain a pdf_type attribute, which identifies the geometric type. Depending on the geometric type, the feature contains additional attributes specific to the geometric type. These are described below.

Geometries with no Z coordinates (2D geometries) will be assigned zero as their z values.

Attribute Name Content
pdf_feature_name The name of the feature’s node inside Model Tree that represents the 3D geometry.

Points

pdf_type: pdf_point

PDF point features specify Nodes that is a collection of points. The points are rasterized according to the rendering mode of the viewer application.

Lines

pdf_type: pdf_line

PDF line features specify Nodes that is a collection of linear line segments. The line segments may be disjoint.

Circular and elliptical arc segments will be stroked into linear line segments. Lines have no area or volume, and will appear as rasterized according to the rendering mode of the viewer application.

Mesh

pdf_type: pdf_mesh

PDF mesh features specify Nodes with 3D meshes. Meshes are composed of triangular faces. If the input mesh contains faces with more than three distinct vertices, then the face will be converted into multiple triangular faces. The triangular faces of a mesh need not be connected.

Faces are one-sided: they are only visible from one view direction. A face is visible when its normal points toward the observer. If the vertices of the outer boundary of the face are observed to be in anti-clockwise order, then the normal of the face points toward the observer, implying that the face is visible.

Polygons and donuts are treated as meshes. They will be converted into triangular faces that represents the inner area of the polygon or donut.

Textures are supported. The texture coordinates can be specified through the fme_texture_coordinate_u, fme_texture_coordinate_v, fme_texture_coordinate_w, and fme_texture_coordinate_q point measures.

Collection

pdf_type: pdf_collection

PDF collection features specify a parent Node with no geometry but with the feature’s attribute values, and child Nodes for each element of the collection. The child Nodes do not have the feature’s attribute values. Child nodes can be of any geometry type.