Esri Indexed 3D Scene Layer (I3S) Writer Parameters

Spatial

Coordinate systems may be extracted from input feature data sources, may come predefined with FME, or may be user-defined. FME allows different output and input coordinate systems, and performs the required coordinate conversions when necessary.

How FME Processes Coordinate Systems in the Workspace

If a coordinate system is specified in both the source format and the workspace, the coordinate system in the workspace is used. The coordinate system specified in the source format is not used, and a warning is logged. If a source coordinate system is not specified in the workspace and the format or system does not store coordinate system information, then the coordinate system is not set for the features that are read.

If a destination coordinate system is set and the feature has been tagged with a coordinate system, then a coordinate system conversion is performed to put the feature into the destination system. This happens right before the feature enters into the writer.

If the destination coordinate system was not set, then the features are written out in their original coordinate system.

If a destination coordinate system is set, but the source coordinate system was not specified in the workspace or stored in the source format, then no conversion is performed. The features are simply tagged with the output system name before being written to the output dataset.

For systems that know their coordinate system, the Coordinate System field will display Read from Source and FME will read the coordinate system from the source dataset. For most other input sources, the field will display Unknown (which simply means that FME will use default values). In most cases, the default value is all you'll need to perform the translation.

You can always choose to override the defaults and choose a new coordinate system. Select More Coordinate Systems from the drop-down menu to open the Coordinate System Gallery.

Changing a Reprojection

To perform a reprojection, FME typically uses the CS-MAP reprojection engine, which includes definitions for thousands of coordinate systems, with a large variety of projections, datums, ellipsoids, and units. However, GIS applications have slightly different algorithms for reprojecting data between different coordinate systems. To ensure that the data FME writes matches exactly to your existing data, you can use the reprojection engine from a different application.

Note  To use this feature, you must have a supported GIS application installed on your system (for example, Esri ArcGIS®).

To change the reprojection engine, Select Workspace Parameters > Spatial > Reprojection Engine. In the example shown, you can select Esri (but the selection here depends on your installed applications):

For more information, see the links below:

Mesh Parameters

This parameter directly controls the number and size of files in the scene layer package. A smaller value will result in many small files, while a higher value will result in fewer, larger files. The default value is 800.

Note  For datasets with textures, a small value is recommended. Datasets without textures can use larger values.

Point Cloud Parameters

The default is 200000.

Point Cloud Component Data Type Notes

angle

Int8

 

classification

UInt8

 

classification_flags

UInt8

Indicates special characteristics associated with each point. This is a bit flag with the following values:

  • 0 - synthetic (created by a technique other than LIDAR collection)
  • 1 - key-point (should not be removed by thinning)
  • 2 - withheld (should not be included in processing)
  • 3 - overlap (this point is in the overlap region of two or more swaths)

color_blue

UInt8

 

color_green

UInt8

 

color_red

UInt8

 

flight_line_edge

UInt8

 

gps_time

Real64

 

intensity

UInt16

 

number_of_returns

UInt8

 

point_source_id

UInt16

 

returns

UInt8

 

scan_direction

UInt8

 

user_data

UInt8 or UInt16

 

I3S supports storing additional components (not part of the fixed component set) for each point through an "extra bytes" Variable Length Record. The Fixed Components parameter specifies a list of components that should be written for each point.

You can add, remove, or re-order the list to change the order in which the components are stored in the output dataset.

Note that the String data type is not supported for components.