Note: This is an extra-cost format. For more information, please contact Safe Software at 604-501-9985, or e-mail sales@safe.com.
The AutoKa PC Transfer File (FF) Reader/Writer allows FME read and write the Swedish FF (FlyttFil) file format.
The FF file format is the export, or transfer file format for exchanging information between applications such as AutoKa-PC and BankIR.
Overview
FF files may contain both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) features.
FF files store feature geometries as well as several predefined attributes. There is only one user defined attribute. There are 6 kinds of features which are separated into two groups: points, lines, and text are considered simple details, whereas polygons, groups, and clusters are compound details.
By default, FME looks for an extension of .ff for the input FF files, but will accept any FF file as input regardless of the filename or extension. FME considers an FF dataset to be a single AutoKa FF file. FF files are binary files consisting of variable-length binary records or packets which make up individual features or details.
The FF format also contains some metadata, such as the creation date of the original data, a user’s signature, scaling factors, and so forth. However, a wide variety of applications use the FF format to shuttle information back and forth, some of which cannot properly maintain this metadata. The standard solution was to store this metadata in a small partnering text file, usually with the name autoka.par when necessary. FME has adopted this convention and can automatically read and write the appropriate autoka.par parameter file when importing from or exporting to the FF format.
Terminology
There are a few cases where FF terminology differs from what is used in the majority of other formats. If referring to FF documentation, you may notice some difference in the terminology used in this manual.
FME documentation uses the word “polygon” in its mathematical definition of a closed region. FF documentation uses the word “polygon” to refer to an unclosed region and the word “area” to refer to a closed region. Another item to note is that in FF documentation, the X axis increases vertically and the Y axis increases horizontally. In contrast, the FME defines the X and Y directions to be consistent with mathematics and most other formats: X is the horizontal axis and Y is the vertical axis. FME automatically takes this axis switching into account where necessary, translating the data as it was intended.