Item Types

Elements in a design file may have user-defined sets of properties attached to them called Item Types. These may be read and written (DGNV8 only) by FME.

When reading a design file, if the option Read XAttributes and Item Type attributes is selected, then FME will read the Item Types attached to each element, and add them to the features.

The attributes shown in the table below are added to an element for each associated Item Type.

<item name> is replaced by each Item Type Name that may be attached to the element. For example, if the element is attached with item types called NumLanes and PaveType, then the feature would have attributes like NumLanes.height, PaveType.rotation, etc. where height and rotation are properties of the Item Types NumLanes and PaveType.

Attribute Name

Required/Optional

Contents

igds_item_names{}

Required when writing items through list attributes.

List of item names attached to an element. Default: No default

<item name>.itemtype_lib_name

Optional

The name of the Item Type Library the Item belongs to.

When writing, if this is not provided, the Item will be put under an Item Type Library called Default Library.

Default: No default

<item name>.<property name>.type

Required when writing Item Types.

The type of the Item Type Property.

Default: 1

Property Types:

1 = String

2 = Double

3 = Integer

4 = Boolean

5 = DateTime

<item name>.<property name>.default_value

Optional when writing Item Types.

The value of the Item Type Property’s default value, as defined in the Property Definition.

If a default value is not provided, then a default value will be created as defined below:

String : “”

Integer: 0

Double: 0.0

Boolean: false

DateTime: The current local time.
Note  Item Type writing is supported by DGNV8 only.

To write Item Types, you must provide all item names as list attributes to igds_item_names{} on the feature.

The V8 writer will create an Item Type for each item in the list. The properties for each item will be created by using the values provided on the feature.

<Item name>.<property name>

The type and default value of a property can be set by assigning the desired values. For example, to set the type of a property, you would use <item name>.<property name>.type. See the table above for information about how these attributes work.

Note that only the property type will be determined by the first occurrence (that is, if the type is different in a subsequent feature for this same property, it will not be modified).