FME (software)

For other uses, see FME.

FME, also known as Feature Manipulation Engine, is a geospatial extract, transformation and load software platform developed and maintained by Safe Software of British Columbia, Canada.^[4] FME was first released in 1996, and evolved out of a successful bid by the founders of Safe Software, Don Murray and Dale Lutz, for a Canadian Government contract to monitor logging activities.^[5]

FME

Example FME workflow
Initial release	November 1996; 27 years ago (1996-11)^[1]
Stable release	Desktop: 2023.1.2^[1] / Desktop: November 16, 2023; 4 months ago (2023-11-16)^[1]
Written in	C++^[2]
Operating system	Windows, MacOS, Linux^[3]
Type	Geographic information system, Geospatial ETL
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	www.safe.com

Software

The base product is FME Form (formerly FME Desktop); this is a standalone software package with an interface that enables the user to graphically build workflows for data translation, automation, and format and coordinate conversion.^[6][7][8] FME Flow (formerly FME Server) is an 'on premise' solution that permits on demand server based instantiations of tailored FME workflows. FME Flow Hosted (formerly FME Cloud) is similar to FME Flow however is hosted 'as needed' in the AWS Cloud.^[9]

FME data transformation workflows typically consist of a combination of the following 'building blocks':

1. Readers to input from single or multiple data sources in a variety of formats or databases.
2. Transformers to manipulate, transform and analyse the data.^[10]
3. Writers to output the data in a number of different formats.

Any number of readers, writers and transformers can be used in an FME workflow. A further tool is the Data Inspector, which can present spatial workflow results in a cartographic display.

The ArcGIS Pro software can use the FME engine and workflows as part of the data interoperability extension.^[11] In 2015 the FME software was integrated with the What3Words geolocation system.^[12]

Use Base

As of November 2022, FME has an estimated 0.32% of the total data integration software market. The Information Technology, governmental, utilities, and oil and gas sectors form the largest organisational user base.^[13] Examples of the use of FME include routing for emergency fire response, backend data quality management and sub-surface modelling for infrastructure projects, CAD to GIS file conversions, and BIM data extraction for indoor navigation.^{[14][15][16][17][18]}

Criticism and Reviews

FME is considered a comprehensive platform for BIM data exchange and support of spatial data. Reviews indicate it is strong in the analytic, conversion and interoperability areas, flexible in scope, with a strong user community. However, the cartographic capability is considered poor, interactive editing tools are absent, and the licensing costs are seen as significant.^[19][20][21]

See also

• Geographic information system software – Software program for geographic data
• QGIS – Open-source desktop GIS software
• GDAL – Translator library for raster and vector geospatial data formats
• ArcGIS – Geographic information system maintained by Esri
• File format (GIS) – Standard of encodingPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Spatial Archive and Interchange Format – Historical storage format for geospatial data

References

1. "Build Numbers for FME Versions". Safe Software. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
2. "Developing a New Transformer Using the FME Plug-in SDK". Safe Software. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
3. "FME Downloads". Safe Software. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
4. "Safe Software Makers of the FME® Platform" (PDF). Safe Software. (PDF) from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
5. "Freeing the Data". XYHt. 11 May 2018. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
6. "What is ETL… and How Can it Turn You into a Geospatial Rock Star?". XYHt. 4 June 2020. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
7. "Safe Software's FME Professional Suite 2003". Direction Mag. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
8. Plewe, Brandon (1997). GIS Online Information Retrieval, Mapping, and the Internet. OnWord Press. p. 120. ISBN 9781566901376. from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
9. "Harness the Power of FME Server in the Cloud". Safe Software. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
10. "FME Transformer Gallery". Safe Software. from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
11. "ArcGIS Data Interoperability or FME Desktop". Safe Software. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
12. "what3words Joins Forces with Safe Software". GIM International. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
13. "Companies using FME". Enlyft. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
14. "Developing the Digital Sub-surface Model for Crossrail 2". GIM International. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
15. "1Spatial helps London Fire Brigade achieve 95% faster processing of route queries with FME". GeoConnexion.com. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
16. "Balfour Beatty VINCI". Safe Software. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
17. Zhen, Liu; Jing, Changfeng; Chen, Xiuzhong (2012). "Files' Conversion from CAD to GIS Using Spatial Data Conversion Tools Provided by FME". 2012 International Conference on Computer Science and Service System. IEEE. pp. 1939–1942. doi:10.1109/CSSS.2012.484. ISBN 978-0-7695-4719-0. S2CID 10343042.
18. Tekavec, Jernej; Lisec, Anka (2020). "3D Geometry-Based Indoor Network Extraction for Navigation Applications Using SFCGAL". ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 9 (7): 417. Bibcode:2020IJGI....9..417T. doi:10.3390/ijgi9070417.
19. Mitchell, Tyler (2005). Web Mapping Illustrated. O'Reilly Media. p. 18. ISBN 9780596008659. from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
20. "The 6 Best Geospatial Data Integration Tools to Consider in 2022". Solutions Review. 20 October 2022. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
21. "Interoperable Data Exchange – A Key Factor for BIM". GIM International. from the original on 6 November 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.

External links

• Safe Software