PenMetrics GRD Writer Feature Type Parameters

To access feature type parameters, click the gear icon on a feature type in the workspace. This opens the Feature Type Parameter Editor.

General

All feature types share similar General parameters, which may include Feature Type Name, Reader or Writer information, and Geometry.

In most Writer Feature Type parameter dialogs, you can also control Dynamic Schema Definitions. Some database formats accept Table or Index Qualifier prefixes on the output table feature type.

These parameters apply only to a selected feature type, not to the entire reader.

Layer Type

GRD files use a layers concept to organize all features they contain. Every feature lies on one of the many layers that may be defined. Each layer has a unique name and defines colors, line styles, font styles, etc. for use with all features on that layer that do not have overriding settings. Layers may be either Drawing or Markup types. Every GRD file has the following two mandatory layers:

• Layer “0” — the drawing layer
• Layer “Markup 0” — the markup, or inking, layer

Any number of other layers may be defined by the user.

Line Type

Line types are used to define the way line work is meant to be displayed.

When reading from GRD files, several line type specific attributes are given to each feature. Together they define the line type that it is meant to be displayed with.

When writing GRD files, these line type specific attributes, if present, are stored as the line type to use. By default, a line type of CONTINUOUS is used when writing GRD files.

A line type definition has a name and a description that appears to the user. Usually the description shows what the line type looks like by using underscores (‘_’) and spaces (‘ ’), for example: ““__ __ ______ . __ __”. The actual line type definition consists of a series of dashes. There are a maximum of 12 dashes that can make up a line type. Here is how the line types are represented:

• Dash: Positive dash length where the length is the length of the dash.
• Space: Negative space length where the length is the absolute value of the space.
• Dot: Dash length of zero.

To represent this line type ““__ __ ______ . __ __ ”, the following dashes would be necessary: 2, -2, 2, -2, 4, -2, 0, -2, 2, -2, 2, -2

The details of how this information is represented in FME attributes is found in this section under the heading Linetypes Representation.

GRD Numeric Color Associations

The numeric color values referred to in GRD files have the following associations:

GRD Numeric Color Value	Description
0	black
1	blue
2	green
3	cyan
4	red
5	magenta
6	brown
7	light gray
8	gray
9	light blue
10	light green
11	light cyan
12	light red
13	light magenta
14	yellow
15	white
16	visible (pen) or transparent (brush)
17	use layer’s color
18	use block’s color (valid only for block entities)