FME Segment Line with To/From Distance Values from Excel?

Question

I have a large road network with some basic attributes like ROAD NAME, ROAD TYPE, LENGTH. Each road has been segmented but these segments are wrong for the new schema. I have successfully (mostly!) joined these line segments in preparation for creating the new segments with new attributes/values.

What I really need help on is: how to segment these roads individually based on the To/From distance values I have in an excel file, which is the basis of the new schema for whole road network. Whole bunch of new attributes and their values here too.

Ive read up on the SNIPPER and MEASURE SETTER but unsure of how to proceed. Should I be SCHEMA MAPPING or ATTRIBUTE CREATING first prior to creating segments? I would have thought I would need the segments to be made first so the road segments could be matched to the schema where the segment length values are coming from?

Answer 1

From what I understand from your question, I think you're trying to split a road segment based on To/From attributes you have in an excel file. You're on the right track with the snipper.

The first thing you should do is use the MeasureGenerator transformer. You can create a measure for each road in your dataset. I suggest using a unique identifier in the road dataset as your Destination Measure Name. That way, you can use this later with your Snipper.

Next, join the roads to your spreadsheet values. You can use a FeatureMerger and join based on your unique identifier. You could also use a Joiner transformer. See this post on when to use each. Ensure you set the Merge type to "Attributes Only". Your Requestor port should be the roads, and the Supplier is the Excel file. Output port should be "Merged".

Finally, connect your Snipper Transformer . This should be set as follows: Snipping Mode: Measure (Value) Starting Location: The From field in your data that you merged in the last step. Ending Location: The To field in your data that you merged in the last step. Measure Name: The measure name you specified in the first step.

There may be a step before all this if your road segments need to be merged first. But it wasn't clear from your question. If so, how should the roads be merged? By Road Name and Type? Just Road Name?

• eltigre333: Fantastic, thanks. Will try this tonight. Yes, I've already joined the roads, by road name only, using an intersecter, snapper and line join, as there were gaps in the road segments and small individual line segments representing bridges, causeways etc but with the same name attribute which prevented joining. Some of these required manual removal in Arcmap prior to join.