Inside The SafeInsider - A Must Read!

Are you a Safe Software customer, user, or wanna-be user? If so then you HAVE to start reading the “SafeInsider” newsletter. I just received the first edition in the mail and I have to compliment the Vancouver-based crew of ETL experts – this is hands-down one of the most useful and informative corporate newsletters I’ve received… I actually read this one cover to cover!

I’m no power FME user, however, I definitely have a much better view of all the new functionality in FME 2007. Thanks… I’m looking forward to receiving volume 2! Read on for some details of what was inside the newsletter. Note: As of the FME 2007 release the Safe Insider E-newsletter and the “Did You Know” release newsletter have been merged into The “SafeInsider”

In typical fashion, the newsletter kicks off with a perspective from the founders (Dale Lutz & Don Murray). They’ve provided a brief recap of the past year, some corporate updates, and an intro into the latest offerings from their flagship product – FME 2007.

Digging deeper into the publication a number of goodies are found including:

A detailed look at Safe Software’s support for raster data types
New features in FME SpatialDirect 2007
A how-to on working with the Curvefitter – now integrated with FME to enable advanced curve fitting for the boundaries of adjacent features.
A great user case study describing how the Arkansas GeoStor uses FME SpatialDirect to help power their webmapping solutions (see www.geostor.orkansas/portal).
User tips like how to read and write web feeds with FME 2007 (yes indeed, FME has a GeoRSS reader and writer!) see more at www.safe.com/georss/
Meet the Safe Software crew – a nice personal touch giving you a chance to meet someone you may have talked to on the phone or swapped emails with.
Training updates, for example, a Spanish reseller is now offering Spanish-speaking users training on the basics of FME.
What’s new in FME 2007. With more than 2100 new enhancements at FME 2007 this is a lengthy read… also a must read for any users of FME. This list includes special sections devoted to describing the coolest new features broken out by vendor product (Autodesk, ESRI, Informatica, Microsoft, and Oracle)
Fun stuff – all work and no play is a drag. The Safe crew do a good job of having fun and sharing stories like results from contests (FME Idol), information on upcoming events like the FME UC in Muenster, Germany, Sept 17-18, 2007 and FME Swedish UC Sept 20-21, 2007. And those of you with FME “Shwag” will be interested in showing it off and getting a chance to win in the Safe Around the World Challenge – see more at www.safe.com/aroundtheworld.

I could go on and on but then you wouldn’t have to read the newsletter for yourself! I have to admit, this is one of the first times I’ve offered up a quicktake/review on a newsletter but this one gets a 9.5 out of 10!

Of note, the following are SOME of the new data formats supported by FME 2007:

Vector – ASPRS Lidar, ESRI ArcGIS 9.x layer, AutoCAD MAP 3D 2008 FDO provider, GeoRSS, SDF3, Trimble JobXML, ES EPA Geospatial data XML, KML 2.1 and more!
Raster – ERDAS Raw, GIF (writer), NITF, PNG (writer) RADARSAT2, TIFF, WMS (reader) and more!