File Version
Provides a hint of the target version of the output file.
This affects compatibility options for date fields. Specifically, versions 300 and 450 will treat date/time fields as strings instead.
Note that this option does not affect the overall version number written to the file. That is determined by the specific attribute types, geometry types, or coordinate systems. For example, if the coordinate system is “Krovak S-JTSK”, then the version is promoted to at least 900.
Values Supported: 300, 450, 900, 950, 1000, 1050, 1100, 1150
File Contents
Character Encoding
This parameter is applicable if you are working with extended (not basic ASCII) character sets. If your source data contains non-ASCII characters, using this parameter along with the encoding value ensures that the original data is preserved from the reader to the writer.
The character encoding will be automatically detected from the source file (fme-source-encoding). If you select any other character encoding, it will take precedence over the automatically detected character encoding.
FME supports most encodings.
Spatial
Coordinate System
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.
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.
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):
- The coordinate systems file coordsys.db in the FME installation folder contains the names and descriptions of all predefined coordinate systems.
- Some users may wish to use coordinate systems that do not ship with FME, and in those cases, FME also supports custom coordinate systems.
- Learn more about Working with Coordinate Systems in FME.
Build Optimal Spatial Index
Tells the MapInfo writer to create an optimal spatial index when writing. This will allow for faster spatial queries on the resulting file when using MapInfo Pro or other software that takes advantage of built-in spatial indexing. The use of this directive will, however, slow down the writing of the file.
Geometry
Generate and Write Region Centroids
To direct the writer to calculate the region centroid and store the x and y values in the corresponding mif_centroid_x and mif_centroid_y format attributes. The writer only attempts to calculate the centroid values if the format attributes were not previously set. If neither the format attributes nor this directive are set, a default centroid value is still calculated by underlying libraries.
Write 2 Point Line as Polyline
Indicates whether to write a linear feature with two vertices as a polyline (two or more vertices).
Stroke Arcs into Polyline
Indicates whether the arcs are vectorized before writing. If Yes, all arcs are converted to polylines. This option may be useful where sweep angles have precision finer than 0.1 degree.
Explicit Coordinate System Line
Coordinate System Statement
The coordinate system statement that should be used in the output files. Usually, FME examines the coordinate system information present on the features written to the files, and outputs the coordinate system based on this information. However, in certain circumstances it is necessary to override this and force a particular coordinate system to be output. This is typically done to force the units of a non-Earth projection to something other than the default, which is meters.
Bounds Min X, Bounds Min Y, Bounds Max X, Bounds Max Y
Allows explicit setting of the bounds of the output features. Because MIF has limited precision for storing coordinates, defining a tight bound on the range of the data can preserve more accuracy.