This presentation describes how FME Desktop and Server were used by a consulting firm to efficiently build a GIS database to catalogue all the data they had in their possession for future use.

1. CONNECT. TRANSFORM. AUTOMATE.
Using FME to find out…
… what we already know
Roland Martin
Senior GIS Consultant

2. Using FME to find out…
…what we already know
! Everyone deals in data
! We all tread a line between:
! Reinventing the wheel, and
! Doing things the old way
! It helps if you are aware
of what you already
know about a
particular location

3. ! A global, integrated, multidisciplinary firm of
professionals working together to tackle
complex planning, infrastructure and building
design challenges
! 11,000 engineers, designers, planners,
management consultants and economists
! 90 offices in 37 countries
! Full service from concept through completion
! Dedicated to delivering value through
expertise, global resources and local delivery

4. The kind of questions GIS
people normally get asked
! Source: made up
CONNECT. TRANSFORM. AUTOMATE.
10 GIS? What’s that?
9 What do you spend all your time doing anyway?
8 Don’t you just draw maps all the time?
7 Is GIS really as good as AutoCAD / MicroStation / BIM?
6 Is it really worth using GIS when I can do it in CAD?
5 Can you get the data out of this scanned PDF for me?
4 Can you show me my project in Google Maps?
3 Can you draw me a map of my project location?
2 I need something that looks “cool” or “cartoon-like”. Can you help?
1 What data do we already have for my project location?

5. What kinds of things might we
already know about a location?
! Base mapping
! Topography
! Land ownership
! Site photos
! Site surveys
! Aerial imagery
! Borehole locations
! Project reports
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,eMapSite,CC-BY-SA

6. How would we normally find out
what information we already have?
! Much of the time, it simply isn’t possible
! Occasionally, someone will remember something…
https://www.flickr.com/photos/galopoulos/

7. Can we actually reuse any of
the data?
Probably
Possibly, but data is
often licensed to a
particular client
Unlikely – data is
normally licensed for a
particular project
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

8. What do we want to do with
the data?
! For a decent, modern web map, you probably
want:
! Leaflet (or OpenLayers) on the front-end
! PostGIS (or CouchDB) on the back-end,
generating GeoJSON directly
! Something in between to serve the data (we went
for a PHP-based API)
! FME Server, to automate the data loading process

9. Building a database of existing
GIS data
! Office locations
! Previous projects
! Site photos
! Site surveys
Mapdata©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

10. Mapping office locations
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

11. Mapping project locations
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

12. Enriching the data
! Weed out the obvious errors by overlaying the
locations on country outlines
! Use a geocoding service to add project locations
where addresses are known
! Project-specific datasets may provide the clue to
more locations…

13. Mapping site photos
! Thousands of
photos are taken
for projects
! But everyone
forgets they
exist!

14. Changing technologies
! When people come
back from a site
visit, they mark up
a map with the
photo locations
! Wouldn’t it be
easier if they could
go straight on a
web map?

15. Stealth GIS data collection
! The smartphone revolution
! Photos are still being taken –
but now they include location
information!

16. Searching for existing photos
! The “Directory and File
Pathnames” (PATH)
reader – lets you build a
simple file spider
! You can also extract
additional properties (i.e.
who last modified the file,
and when)

17. Adding more photos
! Use FME
Server’s
scheduling
capabilities
to regularly
check a shared
folder location
! Use the notifications in FME Server to allow
people to email photos directly at the server

18. Spatial photo library
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

19. Spatial photo library
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

20. Collecting site surveys
Spiderer – loops through the drive looking
for particular file types
! We searched our drives for files matching the
patterns:
! *SV*.dgn or *SV*.dwg
! *survey*.dgn or *survey*.dwg
PostgreSQL

21. Collecting site surveys
SurveyReader – reads file locations from
PostgreSQL and writes footprints into
PostGIS

22. Collected site surveys

23. Collected site surveys
! Survey data may not be
reusable on other
projects
! Surveys in some
locations go out of date
very quickly
! But… this is still an
extremely valuable
resource

24. Bringing it back together
©OpenStreetMapcontributors,CC-BY-SA

25. Thank You!
! Questions?
! For more information:
! Roland Martin – roland.martin@arup.com
! Arup – www.arup.com
CONNECT. TRANSFORM. AUTOMATE.