Symptoms

Upgrading to ArcGIS 10 or installing the latest FME has greyed out the ESRI ArcSDE formats in the Formats gallery

 

Cause

1 - ArcGIS 10 no longer builds the ARCGISHOME variable when it installs. FME uses this to find the location of the libraries for the SDE formats.

2 - The SDE SDK has not been installed or available on the client machine

3 - The platform of FME doesn't match the platform of the SDE libraries - i.e. 32 bit FME vs 64 bit SDE

 

Resolution

1 - For FME 2010 SP2 it is necessary to add an environment variable ARCGISHOME pointing to the same location as the AGSDESKTOPJAVA variable which is the name of the new ArcGIS 10 home installation location. This has be resolved in FME 2010 SP3 and higher.

2 - The ArcGIS install may not have set the AGSDESKTOPJAVA environment variable. This needs to point to the folder under which a bin folder exists with the sde.dll, sg.dll and pe.dll files

3 - If you don't have an installed, licensed copy of ArcGIS on the client machine then you need to obtain the SDE SDK libraries from an ESRI product to ensure compatibility between FME and your SDE database.

There are three methods for obtaining the required libraries:

1) Install ArcGIS Desktop - works if you have a 32 bit FME

OR

2) Install the SDE C SDK (available on your ArcGIS Server  DVD) and set up the environment variable described below - works if you have either a 32 bit or 64 bit FME

OR

3) Install ArcEngine and set the environment variable described below - works if you have a 32 bit or 64 bit FME

 Variable Name - SDEHOMEValue - <ArcGIS Directory>\arcsde\(i.e. pointing to whichever folder contains the bin folder which contains the SDE .dlls)

4 - Verify that you are using the same platform release of the software - i.e. 32 bit FME with a 32 bit SDE and 64 bit FME with a 64 bit FME.

If you are using 64 bit FME to access SDE then follow the instructions in this article to setup the correct libraries.