Merges multiple raster features into a single raster feature.
Typical Uses
- Merging multiple rasters
- Joining abutting raster tiles together into a single feature
- Merging overlapping raster features together, blending the overlaps
- Preparing data for use in operations that require a single raster feature (eg VectorOnRasterOverlayer)
How does it work?
The RasterMosaicker accepts a number of raster features and combines them into a single raster feature.
The input rasters must all have the same number of bands and palettes, or selected bands and palettes.
Each band is individually mosaicked together, and then appended to the output raster. The output raster will have the same number of bands and palettes as the input (whether whole rasters or selected bands/palettes).
If there are gaps in data (that is, areas not covered by any raster), the empty cells will be filled with nodata values if available, or zero if not.
Bands and Palettes
Rasters may have one band or multiple bands.
Rasters may have no palette, one palette, or multiple palettes. For more information on raster structure, see Rasters (IFMERaster).
Selecting Raster Bands and Palettes
To select specific bands and/or palettes, use the RasterSelector prior to the RasterMosaicker.
- When there are no selected palettes or Merge Palettes is No, each band in a set must have the same band interpretation and nodata value.
- When there are selected palettes and Merge Palettes is Yes, each band must have one selected palette, and all palettes must have the same value interpretation.
A variety of options are available for handling alignment issues, overlapping pixel values, nodata values, and differing resolution.
Attributes from the input features may be merged onto the output raster, and an optional Count attribute will record the number of input features included.
Attributes from the input features may also be appended to an optional list attribute.
Example: Mosaicking adjacent orthophotos
In this example, we start with a set of three individual georeferenced images.
The features are routed into a RasterMosaicker.
The default settings will provide the desired results. We will also add a Count Attribute - Count - to track how many images have gone into the mosaicked image, and create a list attribute called Basenames which will contain the name of each source image.
One single raster feature is output. In the Data Inspector, we can see the new list attribute and count, indicating that three rasters went into the mosaic, and what their names were.
Choosing a Raster Transformer
FME has an extensive selection of transformers for working with raster data. They can be generally categorized as working with whole rasters, bands, cells or palettes, and those designed for workflow control or combing raster with vector data.
For information on raster geometry and properties, see Rasters (IFMERaster).
Raster Transformers
Working with Rasters
These transformers generally apply to whole rasters.
| RasterCellOriginSetter | Sets the raster's cell origin. |
| RasterConvolver |
Applies a convolution filter (sometimes called a kernel or lens) to raster features and outputs the results. |
| RasterExpressionEvaluator | Evaluates expressions on each cell in a raster or pair of rasters, including algebraic operations and conditional statements. |
| RasterExtentsCoercer | Replaces the geometry of input raster features with a polygon covering the extents of the raster. |
| RasterGCPExtractor | Extracts the coordinate system and the Ground Control Points (GCP) from the raster feature and exposes them as attributes. |
| RasterGCPSetter | Sets the Ground Control Points (GCP) on a raster with the specified Column (pixel), Row (line), X Coordinate, Y Coordinate and Z Coordinate. |
| RasterGeoreferencer | Georeferences a raster using the specified parameters. |
| RasterHillshader | Generates a shaded relief effect, useful for visualizing terrain. |
| RasterInterpretationCoercer |
Alters the underlying interpretation of the bands of the raster geometry on the input features, using the specified conversion options. For example, an input raster feature with three bands of interpretation (UInt16, Gray8, and Real64) could be converted to a raster feature with three bands of interpretation (Red8, Green8, and Blue8) or four bands of interpretation (Red16, Green16, Blue16, and Alpha16) in a single operation. |
| RasterMosaicker | Merges multiple raster features into a single raster feature. |
| RasterPropertyExtractor | Extracts the geometry properties of a raster feature and exposes them as attributes. |
| RasterPyramider | Resamples rasters to multiple resolutions, based on either number of levels or dimensions of the smallest output raster. |
| RasterResampler | Resamples rasters, based on specified output dimensions, cell size in ground units, or percentage of original, and interpolates new cell values. |
| RasterRotationApplier |
Applies the raster rotation angle on the input raster properties to the rest of the raster properties and data values. The expected input is a raster with a non-zero rotation angle and the expected output is a rotated raster with a rotation angle of 0.0. It is expected that the input raster properties will be modified to conform the output raster properties for a raster rotated by the given angle. Applying a rotation angle is primarily done for compatibility with other processing and writers that cannot handle a rotation angle. |
| RasterSubsetter | Clips raster features using pixel bounds instead of ground coordinates, and optionally adds cells around the perimeter. |
| RasterTiler | Splits each input raster into a series of tiles by specifying either a tile size in cells/pixels or the number of tiles. |
| RasterToPolygonCoercer | Creates polygons from input raster features. One polygon is output for each contiguous area of pixels with the same value in the input raster. |
| WebMapTiler | Creates a series of image tiles that can be utilized by web mapping applications such as Bing™ Maps, Google Maps™, or Web Map Tile Service. This is done by resampling rasters to various different resolutions and then splitting them into tiles. |
Working with Bands
These transformers generally apply to bands.
| RasterBandAdder | Adds a new band to a raster feature. |
| RasterBandCombiner | Merges coincidental raster features into a single output raster feature, preserving and appending all bands. |
| RasterBandInterpretationCoercer |
Alters the interpretation type of individual raster bands, converting cell values if necessary. |
| RasterBandKeeper |
Removes all unselected bands from a raster feature. |
| RasterBandMinMaxExtractor | Extracts the minimum and maximum band values, palette keys, and palette values from a raster feature, and adds them to a list attribute. |
| RasterBandNameSetter | Sets the band name of selected bands on a raster, making raster contents simpler to understand compared to band numbers. |
| RasterBandNodataRemover | Removes the existing nodata identifier from selected bands of a raster feature. Any values previously equal to the nodata value are considered valid data. |
| RasterBandNodataSetter | Sets a new nodata value on selected bands of a raster feature. |
| RasterBandOrderer | Specifies the required order of bands in a raster. Bands are reordered according to the input band indices. |
| RasterBandPropertyExtractor | Extracts the band and palette properties of a raster feature and exposes them as attributes. |
| RasterBandRemover | Removes any selected bands from a raster feature. |
| RasterBandSeparator | Separates bands or unique band and palette combinations, and outputs either individual raster features or a single new raster feature containing all combinations. |
| RasterStatisticsCalculator | Calculates statistics on raster bands and adds the results as attributes. |
Working with Cells
These transformers generally apply to individual cells.
| RasterAspectCalculator |
Calculates the aspect (direction of slope) for each cell of a raster. Aspect is measured in degrees from 0 to 360, clockwise from north. |
| RasterCellCoercer | Creates individual points or polygons for each cell in a raster, optionally extracting band values as z coordinates or attributes. |
| RasterCellValueCalculator | Evaluates basic arithmetic , minimum, maximum or average operations on the cell values of a pair of rasters. |
| RasterCellValueReplacer | Replaces a range of band values in a raster with a new single value. |
| RasterCellValueRounder | Rounds off raster cell values. |
| RasterSingularCellValueCalculator | Performs basic arithmetic operations on the cell values of a raster against a numeric value. |
| RasterSlopeCalculator | Calculates the slope (maximum rate of change in z) for each cell of a raster. |
Working with Palettes
These transformers generally apply to palettes.
| RasterPaletteAdder |
Creates a palette from an attribute, and adds this palette to all selected bands on a raster. |
| RasterPaletteExtractor | Creates a string representation of an existing palette on a raster and saves it to an attribute. |
| RasterPaletteGenerator | Generates a palette out of the selected band(s) of a raster. The output raster will have the selected band(s) replaced by a new band with a palette. |
| RasterPaletteInterpretationCoercer |
Alters the interpretation type of raster palettes. |
| RasterPaletteNodataSetter |
Identifies the palette key that matches a raster band’s nodata value, and sets a value on it. |
| RasterPaletteRemover | Removes selected palette(s) from raster features. |
| RasterPaletteResolver | Resolves the palette(s) on a raster by replacing cell values with their corresponding palette values. Palette values with multiple components, such as RGB, are broken down and the individual values assigned to multiple, newly-added bands. |
Workflow Control
These transformers generally control the flow of features in a workspace.
| RasterCheckpointer | Sets a checkpoint in the raster processing which forces previous processing to occur immediately. Once complete, it saves the current state to disk. |
| RasterConsumer | Requests the tile(s) from the raster geometry but no actual operations are performed on the tile(s). |
| RasterExtractor | Serializes the geometry of the feature into the Blob Attribute based on the selected writer format. |
| RasterNumericCreator | Creates a feature with a raster of the specified size with a numeric value and sends it into the workspace for processing. It is useful for creating a very large image with a user-specified width and height. |
| RasterReplacer | Replaces the geometry of the feature with the geometry held in the Blob Attribute. The blob is decoded according to the selected raster format. |
| RasterRGBCreator | Creates a feature with a raster of the specified size with an RGB value and sends it into the workspace for processing. |
| RasterSelector |
Selects specific bands and palettes of a raster for subsequent transformer operations. |
Vectors and Rasters
These transformers generally involve using rasters and vector data together.
| ImageRasterizer | Creates a raster representation of vector or point cloud input features, using the fme_color attribute over a solid background fill for vector features. Point clouds may be rendered using their color or intensity components. |
| NumericRasterizer | Draws input point, line and polygon features onto a numeric raster filled with the background value. The Z coordinates of the input vector features are used to generate pixel values. Features without Z coordinates will be discarded. |
| MapnikRasterizer | Generates a raster from input vector and raster features, with fine control over symbolization and labeling, using the Mapnik toolkit. |
| PointOnRasterValueExtractor | Extracts the band and palette values from a raster at the location of one or more input points and sets them as attributes on the feature. |
| VectorOnRasterOverlayer | Rasterizes vector or point cloud features onto an existing raster. For vector features the fme_color attribute sets pixel color, and point clouds may be rendered using their color or intensity components. |
Configuration
Input Ports
Input
This transformer accepts only raster features.
Output Ports
Output
One mosaicked raster feature, or one mosaicked raster feature per group if Group By is used.
<Rejected>
Non-raster features will be routed to the <Rejected> port, as well as rasters with elements not compatible with the current mosaicking operation.
Rejected features will have an fme_rejection_code attribute with one of the following values:
INVALID_GEOMETRY_TYPE
EXTRA_RASTER_TOO_MANY_PALETTES
INVALID_RASTER_MISMATCHED_NODATA_VALUE
INVALID_RASTER_PALETTE
INVALID_RASTER_BANDS
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
Transformer
| Group By | The rasters may be organized into groups with the Group By parameter, with each group of rasters having its own output raster. |
| Parallel Processing |
Select a level of parallel processing to apply. Default is No Parallelism. Parallel 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 LevelsFor 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. 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. |
Alignment
| Snapping Type |
Used if the rasters are not perfectly aligned. The first input feature defines the reference grid. Resample: Resamples (if necessary) subsequent raster features to fit the reference grid. Offset: Moves (if necessary) subsequent raster features to fit the reference grid, without resampling. Offsetting may be faster than resampling, but requires that all rasters have the same pixel size. |
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| Interpolation Type |
If the input rasters do not line up exactly or if they have different spacings, this transformer will use the selected Interpolation Type to snap and/or resample the input rasters according to the selected method:
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Data Values
| Overlapping Values |
Specifies how output cell values will be calculated when rasters overlap.
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| Nodata Overwrites Data |
When Overlapping Values is set to Last, this option specifies whether nodata values should overwrite data values in rasters that have been previously drawn. Yes: any nodata overlapping real data values will overwrite the real data values. No: nodata overlapping real data will be ignored, and the real data values will be preserved. Note that data values will always overwrite both nodata and data values. |
Palettes
| Merge Palettes |
Specifies how palettes will be treated when present. Yes: Selected palettes in each input band set will be merged to create a single palette for the output band. No: Selected palettes in each input band set will be accumulated on the output band without modification. |
Attributes
| Accumulation Mode |
Drop Incoming Attributes: Attributes from all incoming features are removed, including the first feature. Merge Incoming Attributes: Attributes from incoming features are merged onto the output raster feature. Use Attributes from One Feature: Attributes from the first input raster feature are retained. |
| Count Attribute | If a Count Attribute is given, then an attribute with this name will be added to each output feature, containing the number of features that were combined to create the raster feature. |
Generate List
When enabled, adds a list attribute to the output raster feature, retaining attribute values for each input feature.
| 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. Alternatively, AttributeExposer can be used. |
| Add To List |
All Attributes: All attributes will be added to the output raster feature. Selected Attributes: Enables the Selected Attributes parameter, where specific attributes may be chosen to be added. |
| Selected Attributes | Enabled when Add To List is set to Selected Attributes. Specify the attributes you wish to be added. |
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.
How 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.
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.
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.
Content Types
| These functions manipulate and format strings. | |
| A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor. | |
| Math functions are available in both editors. | |
| These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor. | |
| These return primarily feature-specific values. | |
| FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used. | |
| Working with User Parameters | Create your own editable parameters. |
Reference
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Processing Behavior |
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Feature Holding |
Yes |
| Dependencies | None |
| FME Licensing Level | FME Professional Edition and above |
| Aliases | |
| History | |
| Categories |
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Examples may contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Vancouver