Intersector

Example: Intersecting different geometry types - areas and lines

In this example, we start with a set of park polygons and bike path lines, and want to split the polygons where the lines intersect them. To do that, we will first use the Intersector, then build the segmented areas.

The first step is to route both datasets into one Intersector.

The default settings will produce the results we want.

The Intersector reduces all of the geometry to line segments, and creates nodes at the intersection points.

By routing only the Intersected features through an AreaBuilder and then filtering for Parks only, we end up with park polygons, split where the bike paths ran through them.

Example: Finding intersections and building lists

In this example, we start with a dataset of street centerlines. The street geometry is as contiguous as possible - the line segments are not broken at intersections, as shown here with a selected street highlighted in yellow. We want to create intersections, and find out which streets cross at those intersections, using a list attribute.

The street dataset set is routed into an Intersector.

In the Intersector parameters dialog, Generate List is enabled. The list is named Intersections, and one selected attribute - NAME - will be captured in the new list.

At each intersection of the lines, they are split, and a node is placed at the intersection. The nodes have a list called Intersections, which contains the NAME attribute we requested, as well as the angle and direction of line it is referring to.

The selected node shown here has four items in the list, as four line segments converge at that point - Broughton St incoming and outgoing, and Alberni St incoming and outgoing.

The lists can be further manipulated - see About List Attributes.

Spatial Transformers Comparison

Transformer	Can Merge Attributes	Alters Geometry	Counts Related Features	Creates List	Supported Types*	Recommended For
SpatialFilter	Yes	No	No	No	Point Text Curve Area	Testing for the existence of spatial relationships between two sets of features, and routing them according to whether they pass or fail the test(s).
SpatialRelator	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Point Text Curve Area	Identifying the nature of spatial relationships between two sets of features.
AreaOnAreaOverlayer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Area	Finding polygon overlaps and extracting them into new geometry.
LineOnAreaOverlayer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Curve and Area	Finding intersections between lines and polygons, splitting either where they intersect.
LineOnLineOverlayer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Curve	Finding intersections between line features, splitting them, and generating new line geometry as well as points representing the intersections.
PointOnAreaOverlayer	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Point and Area Text and Area	Identifying points that fall within polygons, and merging attributes between them
PointOnLineOverlayer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Point and Curve Text and Curve	Identifying where points fall on lines, and splitting the lines into new geometry.
PointOnPointOverlayer	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Point Text	Identifying points in the same location (within a tolerance), and merging attributes between them.
Intersector	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Point Text Curve Area	Finding intersections between all input features, regardless of geometry (including self-intersections), splitting features, and creating new geometry.
Clipper	Yes	Yes	No	No	Point Text Curve Area Surface Solids Raster Point Cloud	Comparing features against a set of Clipper features, and splitting the features at or along the Clipper boundaries. Outputs both new and untouched geometry, identified as either Inside or Outside the Clipper.
NeighborFinder	Yes	In some cases	No	Yes	Point Text Curve Area	Identifying the nearest other feature(s) to each feature being considered, either in another set of features or within the same feature set.
TopologyBuilder	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Point Text Curve Area	Analyzing spatial relationships between features to compute topology, splitting features and creating new geometry representing topologically significant nodes, edges, and faces, with associated attributes.

* Note that Curve includes Lines, Arcs, and Paths. Area includes Polygons, Donuts, and Ellipses.

The Effect of Spatial Transformer Choice on Performance

Spatial analysis can be processing-intensive, particularly when a large number of features are involved. If you would like to tune the performance of your workspace, this is a good place to start.

When there are multiple ways to configure a workspace to reach the same goal, it is often best to choose the transformer most specifically suited to your task.

If performance is an issue in your workspace, look for alternative methods, guided by geometry.

Input

Features to be compared for intersections. Point, line, and area features are supported.

Intersected

The intersected features are output to this port. If the List Name parameter was specified, these features will have an attribute containing their number of overlapping input features. They will also have all attributes of the original features.

Node

The locations of topologically significant nodes are represented by point features and are output to this port. The transformer parameters modify which attributes are included on the output features.

Collapsed

Features which were smaller than the tolerance value collapse to a point and are output to this port.

All null, surface, solid, raster, and point cloud features are output through this port.

Features whose projection onto the xy-plane are not finite (i.e. nan or infinity coordinates) are also output from this port.

Rejected Feature Handling: can be set to either terminate the translation or continue running when it encounters a rejected feature. This setting is available both as a default FME option and as a workspace parameter.

Group Processing

Group By

The default behavior is to use the entire set of features as the group. This option allows you to select attributes that define which groups to form.

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.

General

Tolerance	The minimum distance between geometries in 2D before they are considered equal, in ground units. If the tolerance is Automatic, a tolerance will be automatically computed based on the location of the input geometries. Additionally, a custom tolerance may be used. See Geometry Concepts > Tolerance.
Duplicate Nodes at Each Elevation	The creation of nodes can be calculated in 3D, if requested. Constructing nodes in 3D would mean that line segments would only share a node if they shared the same Z value at the point they intersected. Constructing nodes in 2D would mean that all intersecting segments would share a common node, regardless of their respective Z values. For example, a situation where two lines (that crossed) represented roads, where one road was an overpass above the other road. with differing elevations. If you constructed nodes in 3D, these two roads would not be linked to the same node where they crossed. Two nodes would be produced at the crossing point – each one with a different Z value. If you constructed nodes in 2D, these lines would both link to a common node, which would be present at the location where they crossed. In either the 2D or 3D case, the full dimensionality of the input is preserved in the output – 3D features are never converted to 2D. The 2D or 3D choice only indicates how the nodes are created and which lines are linked to them; it does not affect the dimension of the features that are output. Yes - Whenever 3D lines intersect at differing heights, two 2D nodes will be output via the Node port. Each node will have the same x and y coordinates, but a different node number. No - Whenever 3D lines intersect at differing heights, a single 2D node is output at the intersection point.
Separate Collinear Segments	If Yes - causes overlapping segments not to be merged into a single segment: one copy is output for each original feature sharing the segment. Each such segment will have the respective original feature’s attributes as its main attributes, and attributes from all other collinear features will be added as a list attribute, if the list name was supplied. When a coverage of polygons is input, the set of topologically significant lines which form their boundaries is output.
Aggregate Handling	Deaggregate: All input aggregates will be deaggregated, and each split part will be processed independently. With this setting, the transformer might output more features than were given as inputs. Reject: All input aggregates will be rejected.
Treat Measures as	When new coordinates are added due to intersection, the measures at those coordinates are determined from existing coordinates. Continuous: New measures will be computed from a linear interpolation of the neighboring coordinates along that segment. Discrete: Measures will be set to the measures of the nearest coordinates along the intersected segment.

Output Attribute Names

Direction	Name this optional attribute to include in generated lists. On segment features, it indicates whether the attributes at that entry in the list come from a collinear feature that had the "same" or "opposite" direction as the output feature. On node features, it indicates whether the attributes at that entry in the list come from a segment feature that is "outgoing" from the node or "incoming" to the node.
Overlap Count	Name the attribute to contain the number of collinear input lines that overlapped the output segment.
Segment Count	Name the attribute to contain the number of segments into which the segment’s original feature was divided. If an input feature was broken into n output segments, each of those segments will have an attribute named <attribute name> which has a value of n.
Node Number	Name the attribute to contain a unique ID for each topologically significant node.

Attribute Accumulation

Accumulation Mode

Specifies how attributes should be accumulated.

Drop Attributes: All incoming attributes are removed from the features.

Merge Attributes: Merges all attributes from overlapping segments.

Use Attributes From One Feature: Takes all attributes from one representative feature.

Prefix

When Separate Collinear Segments is Yes, and Accumulation Mode is Merge Attributes, this value prefixes all incoming attributes on collinear segments. It does not affect node (point) output.

Generate List

When enabled, adds a list attribute to the output features, and the attributes of intersecting features are added to the list. Nodes will receive list attributes from all intersecting features, including direction and angle.

List Name

Enter a name for the list attribute.

Note List attributes are not accessible from the output schema in FME Workbench unless they are first processed using a transformer that operates on them, such as ListExploder or ListConcatenator. Alternatively, AttributeExposer can be used.

Add To List

All Attributes: All attributes will be added to the output features.

Selected Attributes: Enables the Selected Attributes parameter, where specific attributes may be chosen for inclusion.

Selected Attributes

Enabled when Add To List is set to Selected Attributes. Specify the attributes you wish to be included.

How to Set Parameter Values

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.

Content Types

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.

Dialog Options - Tables

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.

Processing Behavior	Group-Based
Feature Holding	Yes
Dependencies
Aliases
History

Intersector

Typical Uses

How does it work?

Examples

Usage Notes

Choosing a Spatial Transformer

Configuration

Input Ports

Output Ports

Parameters

Editing Transformer Parameters

Reference

FME Community