Available Formats
FME supports a number of readers/writers for SDE and Geodatabase. Which to use depends on the platform you are running on, and what your needs are.
For a comparison of the capabilities of each of these see ESRI Readers and Writers.-
Esri Geodatabase (Personal Geodatabase)
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Esri Geodatabase (File Geodatabase ArcObjects)
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Esri Geodatabase (File Geodatabase Raster Dataset)
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Esri Geodatabase (File Geodatabase API)
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Esri Geodatabase (XML Workspace Document)
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Esri Geodatabase (ArcSDE Geodatabase)
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Esri Geodatabase (ArcSDE Geodatabase Raster Dataset)
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Esri ArcSDE
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Esri ArcSDE Raster
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Esri ArcSDE Raster Map
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Esri ArcSDE Raster Catalog
Esri Geodatabase
In the case of
ALL ESRI Geodatabase formats you need an install of ArcGIS (or equivalent) on the same server as FME and an appropriate ArcGIS license. See
ESRI Licensing. FME uses the ArcGIS ArcObjects API and this must be both accessible and licensed.
Supported Versions
FME support will be available for an ArcGIS version as long as ESRI considers it still active.
Public documents that contain ESRI Product Life Cycle information can be found at:
http://resources.arcgis.com/content/product-life-cycleshttp://support.esri.com/knowledgebase/relatedDocs/ProductLifeCycle.pdf
According to these, ArcGIS 8.3 was retired on the 1st September 2008, ArcGIS 9.0 in December 2008 and ArcGIS 9.1 in June 2010.
Version Compatibility
This table provides an overview of which version of FME is required if you are working with a particular version of ESRI ArcGIS.
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ArcGIS Version
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FME Version
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Comment
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ArcGIS 10.0
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FME 2010 SP2 or higher, including FME 2011 and FME 2012
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ArcGIS 9.3
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FME 2009 or higher
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ArcGIS 9.2
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FME 2008 or higher
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ArcGIS 9.1
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FME 2006GB or higher
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ESRI has retired this
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Additional information on version compatibiilty between client versions and geodatabase versions can be found via this Esri page
Esri ArcSDE
This section relates to accessing native ArcSDE with the ESRI ArcSDE or ESRI ArcSDE Raster Reader and Writer.
It does not apply to FME's Geodatabase Readers and Writers; these access Enterprise Geodatabase (ArcSDE) via ArcObjects and have always required an appropriately-licensed version of ArcGIS software to be installed - see above.
FME 2012 and ESRI ArcSDE Compatibility
FME 2012 does not support ArcSDE 9.1. FME 2012 has no other known compatibility issues other than those identified for FME 2009 below, relating to the distribution of the ArcSDE libraries.
FME 2011 and ESRI ArcSDE Compatibility
FME 2011 no longer supports ArcSDE 9.1 as ESRI has ceased support for ArcGIS 9.1 as of June 2010. FME 2011 has no other known compatibility issues other than those identified for FME 2009 below, relating to the distribution of the ArcSDE libraries.
FME 2010 and ESRI ArcSDE Compatibility
ArcGIS no longer uses the ARCGISHOME environment variable. FME 2010 SP2 still looks for this variable to determine the location of the SDE libraries. Add this environment variable and set it to the same location as the AGSDESKTOPJAVA or AGSSERVERJAVA variable. This has been fixed in FME 2010 SP3 and FME 2011.
FME 2010 has no other known compatibility issues other than those identified for FME 2009 below, relating to the distribution of the ArcSDE libraries.
FME 2009 and ESRI ArcSDE Compatibility
In order to avoid problems of version incompatibility,
as of FME2009, FME no longer installs the required libraries for reading and writing ArcSDE.You should instead obtain these 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 9.3
OR
2) Install the SDE C SDK (available on your ArcGIS Server 9.3 DVD) and set up the environment variable described below
OR
3) Install ArcEngine and check for the environment variable described below
For options 2 or 3 you will need to set up a system environment variable as follows:
Variable Name - SDEHOME Value - <ArcGIS Directory>\arcsde\ (i.e. pointing to whichever folder contains the bin folder which contains the SDE .dlls which are sde.dll, pe.dll & sg.dll)
Q) Does FME 2009 or higher work with ArcSDE 9.2?
Yes - however the same requirements exist as described above for ArcSDE 9.3. Install a 9.2 product and ensure that the system environment variable ARCGISHOME has been set as described above.
Q) Does FME 2009 or higher work with ArcSDE 9.1?
A) Yes. However you will need to download and install some other ESRI product with newer versions of the dlls than are available in an ArcGIS 9.1 install. The simplest solution is to download and install ArcGIS Explorer and then add the SDEHOME variable as described above. As of FME 2011 we can no longer guarantee support for ArcSDE 9.1.
Versions required for ArcSDE Writing
This table provides an overview of which version of FME is required if you are WRITING to ArcSDE or Enterprise Geodatabase.
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= supported -
= supported but see comments -
- = not supported
See Safe Software for additional information on the FME Desktop editions (license levels) that work with ESRI data formats and products.