FME Transformers: 2024.1

Categories
Cartography and Reports

Cartography and Reports

Related Transformers
GeometryColorSetter
Categories
Cartography and Reports

Cartography and Reports

Related Transformers
GeometryColorSetter

FeatureColorSetter

Assigns colors to incoming features.

Example

In the example below, there are unique feature counts and then IDs.

If aggregates are not important, only 3 colors are required:

Feature Adjacent to Areas
2,20 1, 3, 6
8,20 3
9,20 4

If, however, ID 2,20 is treated as an aggregate, then 4 colors are required and the pre-existing ID attributes must be supplied.

Feature Adjacent to Areas
20 10, 30, 40, 60
Feature Not Adjacent to Area
20 50

Usage Notes

  • A TopologyBuilder placed before the FeatureColorSetter can help you build a list of adjacent areas.
  • An AttributeFilter or another FeatureColorSetter can be used to manipulate the Color ID attribute.

Configuration

Input Ports

Input features to be colored.

Note that features must be topologically clean if you are using the Map Coloring schemes.

Output Ports

Features with new color attributes.

Features are output through this port when the FeatureColorSetter is passed an inappropriate input type and cannot apply the chosen color scheme to the input. The two color schemes Map Coloring: Five Color and Map Coloring: N Color (Fast) will produce rejected output if the FeatureColorSetter is passed a non-polygon input.

Parameters

Group By

The default behavior is to use the entire set of input features as the group. This option allows you to select attributes that define which groups to form – each set of features that have the same value for all of these attributes will be processed as an independent group.

The effect of using a Group By attribute varies according to the Color Scheme chosen. It is most effective when used in conjunction with either of the Map Coloring schemes, where color assignments will be made within each group, and features not within the current group are ignored for the purposes of color selection.

If a Group By attribute is used in conjunction with either of the Random color schemes, random colors are applied within a group. Subsequent groups will be processed using the same set of colors, and so duplicate colors will likely result.

To apply random colors but have all features with a common attribute value be the same color, do not use Group By. Instead, use Color Scheme > Random and Randomize Based On > Attributes

Complete Groups

Select the point in processing at which groups are processed:

When All Features Received

This is the default behavior. Processing will only occur in this transformer once all input is present.

When Group Changes (Advanced)

This transformer will process input groups in order. Changes of the value of the Group By parameter on the input stream will trigger processing on the currently accumulating group. This may improve overall speed (particularly with multiple, equally-sized groups), but could cause undesired behavior if input groups are not truly ordered.

There are two typical reasons for using When Group Changes (Advanced) . The first is incoming data that is intended to be processed in groups (and is already so ordered). In this case, the structure dictates Group By usage - not performance considerations.

The second possible reason is potential performance gains.

Performance gains are most likely when the data is already sorted (or read using a SQL ORDER BY statement) since less work is required of FME. If the data needs ordering, it can be sorted in the workspace (though the added processing overhead may negate any gains).

Sorting becomes more difficult according to the number of data streams. Multiple streams of data could be almost impossible to sort into the correct order, 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. In this case, using Group By with When All Features Received may be the equivalent and simpler approach.

Note  Multiple feature types and features from multiple datasets will not generally naturally occur in the correct order.

As with many scenarios, testing different approaches in your workspace with your data is the only definitive way to identify performance gains.

Color Scheme

Fixed: Manually set a feature's pen and fill colors using the Pen Color and Fill Color parameters.

Random: Sets a random color for each incoming feature.

Random (Offset): Same as Random, but with the pen color slightly different than the fill color. This gives a good visual result.

Gradient: Assigns colors along a gradient between a start and end color, based on an interpolation value.

Map Coloring: Assigns colors to areas in a coverage so that adjacent areas are output as different colors. The total number of colors used is kept as small as possible while ensuring that no two adjacent regions receive the same color.

When using the Five Color scheme, a maximum of five colors will be used to color the regions.

When using the N Color (Fast) scheme, each area is colored with the first available color. Ideally, only a few colors will be used but the total number of colors is not guaranteed.

Randomize Based On

Color Limit: Enables the Unique Color Limit parameter described below.

Attributes: Enables the Randomize By Attributes parameter described below.

Randomize By Attributes

When the Color Scheme is set to Random or Random (Offset) and the Randomize Based On is set to Attributes, use this parameter to group the input features based on the specified attributes. Grouped features will all be colored the same random and unique color.

If left empty while enabled, each input feature will be treated as its own group.

Unique Color Limit

When the Color Scheme is set to Random or Random (Offset) and the Randomize Based On is set to Color Limit, use this parameter to set a limit on the number of unique colors randomly selected. The limit can be set to any integer value with a lower bound of 0. If set to 0, then no bound is applied, and there will be no limit to the number of different colors used.

When the Color Scheme is set to N Color (Fast), use this parameter to control how evenly the distribution of colors are. If a value greater than 0 is given, greater effort will be put into providing an even distribution across that maximum number of colors. (However, more colors than that limit may be used if no solution can be quickly found at that limit.) If a value of 0 is given, greater effort will be put into finding a solution with the fewest number of colors used, but the distribution across those colors will not be very even.

Gradient

Gradient Start Color

When Color Scheme is Gradient, set the start color.

Specifying Colors

Colors may be entered directly or chosen from the color picker via the ellipsis button.

Colors can be specified by RGB values or hex codes. RGB values may be either 24-bit or decimal (0 - 1). If the value type is unclear, as in (1,1,1), the 24-bit interpretation is used. Hex codes are accepted with or without a hash sign (#).

 

24-bit RGB

Decimal RGB

Hex code

0,0,0

0,0,0

#000000

255,0,0

1,0,0

#FF0000

202,173,232

0.79,0.68,0.91

#CAADE8

255,255,255

Not Available

 #FFFFFF

Gradient End Color

When Color Scheme is Gradient, set the end color.

Specifying Colors

Colors may be entered directly or chosen from the color picker via the ellipsis button.

Colors can be specified by RGB values or hex codes. RGB values may be either 24-bit or decimal (0 - 1). If the value type is unclear, as in (1,1,1), the 24-bit interpretation is used. Hex codes are accepted with or without a hash sign (#).

 

24-bit RGB

Decimal RGB

Hex code

0,0,0

0,0,0

#000000

255,0,0

1,0,0

#FF0000

202,173,232

0.79,0.68,0.91

#CAADE8

255,255,255

Not Available

 #FFFFFF

Gradient Color Model

When Color Scheme is Gradient, specify the color model to use when interpolating between the start and end colors.

RGB: Each component is interpolated linearly from start to end.

HSV: Saturation and value components are interpolated linearly from start to end. The hue component is circular and is interpolated linearly through the smallest range in that circular space.

Interpolation Value

When Color Scheme is Gradient, specify where on the gradient each feature should fall.

The value should be a number between 0 and 1, where 0 is the start color and 1 is the end. Values outside this range will be clamped to the extremes.

 

Pen Color

When Color Scheme is Fixed, use this parameter to set the pen color (fme_color).

If blank, the pen color will remain unchanged and the value of fme_color will be left as is.

Specifying Colors

Colors may be entered directly or chosen from the color picker via the ellipsis button.

Colors can be specified by RGB values or hex codes. RGB values may be either 24-bit or decimal (0 - 1). If the value type is unclear, as in (1,1,1), the 24-bit interpretation is used. Hex codes are accepted with or without a hash sign (#).

 

24-bit RGB

Decimal RGB

Hex code

0,0,0

0,0,0

#000000

255,0,0

1,0,0

#FF0000

202,173,232

0.79,0.68,0.91

#CAADE8

255,255,255

Not Available

 #FFFFFF

Fill Color

When Color Scheme is Fixed, use this parameter to set the fill color (fme_fill_color). If blank, the fill color will remain unchanged and the value of fme_fill_color will be left as is.

Specifying Colors

Colors may be entered directly or chosen from the color picker via the ellipsis button.

Colors can be specified by RGB values or hex codes. RGB values may be either 24-bit or decimal (0 - 1). If the value type is unclear, as in (1,1,1), the 24-bit interpretation is used. Hex codes are accepted with or without a hash sign (#).

 

24-bit RGB

Decimal RGB

Hex code

0,0,0

0,0,0

#000000

255,0,0

1,0,0

#FF0000

202,173,232

0.79,0.68,0.91

#CAADE8

255,255,255

Not Available

 #FFFFFF

Color ID Attribute

When Color Scheme is Map Coloring, this is the attribute that contains the output color code. The default is _color_id.

Colors are output to the Color ID Attribute as integers (the first color is 0, the second color is 1, etc.).  

Pre-existing Area ID Attribute/Pre-existing Neighbor IDs Attribute

These parameters are used when the Color Scheme is set to Map Coloring.

When you provide a Pre-existing Area ID Attribute and Neighbor ID Attributes for each area, you can force the relationships to follow pre-existing mappings. For example, if your data contains aggregates and you know the area to which they belong, you can define that relationship using these parameters.

This option is especially useful when the input data contains aggregates and you want to "map" pre-existing IDs to define the relationships.

Note  If these parameters are not provided, adjacencies between areas are determined geometrically, and non-polygon geometries (including aggregates and ellipses) are removed.

Area IDs must be non-negative integers, and neighbor IDs are entered as a comma-separated list.

Editing Transformer Parameters

Transformer parameters can be set by directly entering values, using expressions, or referencing other elements in the workspace such as attribute values or user parameters. Various editors and context menus are available to assist. To see what is available, click beside the applicable parameter.

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.

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.

Text Editor

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.

Arithmetic Editor

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.

When setting values - whether entered directly in a parameter or constructed using one of the editors - strings and expressions containing String, Math, Date/Time or FME Feature Functions will have those functions evaluated. Therefore, the names of these functions (in the form @<function_name>) should not be used as literal string values.

String Functions

These functions manipulate and format strings.

Special Characters

 A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor.

Math Functions

Math functions are available in both editors.
Date/Time Functions Date and time functions are available in the Text Editor.

Math Operators

These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor.

FME Feature Functions

These return primarily feature-specific values.

FME Parameters

FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used.
Creating and Modifying User Parameters Create your own editable parameters.

Table Tools

Transformers with table-style parameters have additional tools for populating and manipulating values.

Row Reordering

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

  • Add a row
  • Remove a row
  • Move current row up one
  • Move current row down one
  • Move current row to top
  • Move current row to bottom

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

  • Cut a row - delete and copy to clipboard
  • Copy a row to the clipboard
  • Paste a row from the clipboard

Cut, copy, and paste may be used within a transformer, or between transformers.

Filter

Start typing a string, and the matrix will only display rows matching those characters. Searches all columns. This only affects the display of attributes within the transformer - it does not alter which attributes are output.

Import

Import populates the table with a set of new attributes read from a dataset. Specific application varies between transformers.

Reset/Refresh

Generally resets the table to its initial state, and may provide additional options to remove invalid entries. Behavior varies between transformers.

Note: Not all tools are available in all transformers.

For more information, see Transformer Parameter Menu Options.

Transformer History

This transformer combines the features of, and replaces, these transformers: NeighborColorSetter, ColorSetter, RandomColorSetter.

FME Community

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Search for all results about the FeatureColorSetter on the FME Community.

Keywords: AreaFillColorSetter AreaFillColourSetter PenColorSetter PenColourSetter ColorSetter ColourSetter FeatureColourSetter NeighborColorSetter NeighbourColourSetter NColorer NColourer MapColorer MapColourer MapColorizer MapColourizer RandomColorSetter RandomColourSetter