SnakeGrid Projector

Three new software products designed as plug-ins for the FME software were released in Summer 2016. Known as SnakeGrid Projector, SnakeGrid Object, and SnakeGrid Local, these are designed to allow users to access all the functionality of FME and any of its supported data formats, including CAD, raster, point clouds, shape files, and many more.

 

SnakeGrid Projector is a plug-in to the FME software that permits the transformation of data to and from the SnakeGrid coordinate system. It enables users to work with any of the different data types, format types and feature types that FME supports. The tool has been developed to slot seamlessly into FME workflows, and has been developed to operate generically. In effect this means that it is designed to operate on those file types currently supported by FME, and also by those file types which may be supported by FME in the future.

Using this plug-in, conversions may be made to and from and between the SnakeGrid coordinate systems, and to and from geodetic latitude and longitude, the US State Plane, British National Grid, London Survey Grid, and all UTM zones. The data it handles can be in any of the format supported by FME, including laser scanning point cloud data, raster files of imagery, CAD design files, shape files, and many more.

SnakeGrid Projector is the basic transformation tool. It is used in conjunction with SnakeGrid Object to give more sophisticated options to handle the distortions inherent in changing coordinate system.

For further information about SnakeGrid Projector, and for a demonstration of its use, see the video below.

 

 

Details of licensing terms and prices can be found by following the links to our licensing platform below. Note that the plug-in is available for both the Desktop and Server versions of FME, and comes bundled with SnakeGrid Object.

SnakeGrid Projector for FME Desktop (including SnakeGrid Object) may be purchased here.

SnakeGrid Projector for FME Server (including SnakeGrid Object) may be purchased here.

 

When data is transformed from one coordinate system to another, there is usually a change of scale factor, and so objects appear to be of different size and the spatial relationships between them appear to have changed. Objects in a SnakeGrid coordinate system are close to their true size, as the coordinate system is designed to be close to unity, but the same objects viewed in a national coordinate system may be several hundreds of parts per million smaller or larger. SnakeGrid Object allows users to handle all the same data types as SnakeGrid Projector, but gives more options in the way that it deals with these distortions.

With SnakeGrid Object, users can carry out a “pure” transformation by vertex and accept the distortions of size and position; or they can use its analytical tools to explore the possibility of transforming complex objects as a block and not change the relative sizes and positions of its component parts if the distortions are within acceptable limits.

For further information about SnakeGrid Object, and for a demonstration of its use, see the video below.

 

 

Note that there is no need to purchase SnakeGrid Object separately – it will be included with SnakeGrid Projector.

 

Many engineering projects have a coordinate system created for them “on site” by assigning arbitrary coordinates to a datum point, selecting an orientation, and carrying out a survey to determine other control point coordinates. This eliminates any scale factor distortions, but the link to other coordinate systems (for example the national mapping system, or other engineering grids) is not clear.

SnakeGrid Local gives users a tool to derive appropriate transformations for these engineering coordinate systems, and to create SnakeGrid parameter files for them – which can then be used with other software or applications.

For further information on SnakeGrid Local, and for a demonstration of its use, see the video below.

 

Note that SnakeGrid Local for FME is released with a free licence – no payment is necessary.

SnakeGrid Local for FME Desktop can be downloaded from here.