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Geoinformatics_06-2009
event fme data doctors provided troubleshooting and tips to users. ther by developing an issue meter dial , similar to the gas gauge on a car, this color-coded meter popped up as they moved around the 3d view and the dial moved according to the number of issues that had been logged for a particular parcel or pole. of particular note for katz was how quickly fme is able to manage substantial volumes of data. we are serving up about one terabyte of information and people are able to access it out in the field with a laptop, he said. that s amazing. the same company also developed an fmebased animation application for south florida water management district to visualize rainfall data in real-time. demonstrated by ryan boyce, im specialist, and hardin, they aptly illustrated how fme s flexibility enabled them to integrate tabular text data, gis data layers and radar satellite imagery to animate rainfall events in real-time increments from 15 minutes to 24 hours across a 16-county region. the animations involved developing methods to continually check for new data, validate the data, schedule animations by priority and process up to 30 frames of animation each with more than 30,000 features for real-time viewing in google earth. i don t think there is any other tool that can process this much data into a kml format that quickly, said boyce. managing and transforming large volumes of data did indeed seem to be a recurring theme throughout many presentations. wsdot s leierer showed how they re using fme in combination with other tools to power the creation of a statewide multi-modal transportation dataset. focusing initially on the road networks, fme is transforming disparate data including roads centerline data with addresses and route milepost linear referencing systems into a centralized arcsde database to create a seamless, consistent dataset for users to access via an intranet portal. to date they have integrated road data from eight counties and plan to have 16 completed by spring of 2010. the overall objective, however, is to have a centralized database offering seamless coverage of rail, ports and airports for the entire state. it s an impressive initiative that will provide substantial benefits to business and government, particularly first responders. leierer noted that fme has been a critical success factor in their effort to date. we are integrating massive amounts of data in their original form, said leierer. it would be very difficult to do without a spatial etl tool like fme, which doesn t care what data format you use. integrating massive amounts of data was also the focal point of a demonstration by con terra to show how sdis are becoming a reality across europe with the help of fme. mark doring illustrated how both fme desktop and fme server can be used to transform existing data into an sdi s specified model and enable users to develop revenue-generating services. fme as a data validator and aggregator was demonstrated by clayton wise, senior programmer analyst of virginia s hampton roads sanitation district, which is using the tool to upload and validate diverse data inputs from 14 separate models into one homogenous regional hydraulic wastewater model. the same loading and validating functionality is being used by noaa to create a single data warehouse for a new web-based bathymetry system. much interest was also sparked by a number of sessions showing fme s prowess in supporting 3d applications particularly for the bim market. christian dahmen of con terra visualized how fme users can generate, validate and prepare data from disparate sources to build citygml models. and ulf mansson, a project manager with sweco, showed how they used fme to transform text-based laser scan data into a digital terrain model for climate change analysis in kavlinge, sweden. by the end of the conference, one message became clear: fme has transformed itself far beyond its previous form to give life to a number of initiatives otherwise left on paper. it has also clearly left the development door wide open to users imaginations. perhaps that s what makes it so fun to be an fme user - and happy. mary jo wagner, mj_wagner@shaw.ca, freelance writer, editor, and media consultant. she is based in vancoucer, bc. for more information on safe software, have a look at www.safe.com safe in numbers: in business since 1993 95 employees 113 resellers in 47 countries 7500 users in 116 countries fme 2009 contains more than 430 user-requested features the sun sets over blackcomb mountain, bringing an end to the conference s first day. 52 september 2009
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