3DBufferer

Only solid geometries are accepted as buffers. This port does not require input features unless the Buffer Solid parameter is set to Custom.

Only solids and lines are accepted as input.

Each point in the output solid will be the sum of a point from the input geometry and a point from the buffer solid.

If any attributes were specified in this parameter, then all features with the same values for the specified Group By attributes are handled together. Each group should contain exactly one input geometry. If the Buffer Solid parameter is set to Custom, each group should also contain exactly one buffer solid.

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

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.

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.

Considerations 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.

This parameter determines the shape of the buffer solid to be used. The available options are:Cube, Sphere, and Custom. Each option has a few associated parameters.

Cube

Generate a simple axis-aligned cube, centered at the origin, with the specified width. Due to its simplicity, this buffer solid will result in the fastest buffer operations. However, it may be less than ideal if a uniform buffer distance is desired because the corners of the cube will buffer points further away than the sides.

Sphere

Generate an approximated sphere, centered at the origin, with the specified radius and subdivision level. This buffer solid produces a better approximation of a uniform buffer distance with higher levels of subdivision, at the cost of performance of the buffer operations.

Custom

Use a custom solid geometry, to be retrieved from the BufferSolid input port.

Determines the width w of the generated cube. The buffered solid will have been expanded by at least w/2 units in every direction. The value must be a positive number.

Determines the radius r of the generated sphere. The buffered solid will have been expanded by approximately r units in every direction. The value must be a positive number.

Determines the level of subdivision to use. The sphere is generated using the quadrilateralized spherical cube mapping so the final sphere will consist of 6n^2 faces, for a value of n. The value must be an integer greater than 1.