A quick tour of the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension for Desktop

Available with Data Interoperability license.

GIS workflows often rely on data generated by outside sources in a variety of formats. The ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension gives you the ability to integrate nonnative data into your GIS and share your data with others who do not use ArcGIS Pro.

The following is a high-level look at the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension, its capabilities, and its basic workflow.

Spatial ETL tools

A spatial ETL tool is a geoprocessing tool that either references or contains the .fmw file. The Spatial ETL geoprocessing tool allows your Workbench tool to be used in ArcGIS Pro. To support this workflow, there are a few ways to use the ETL tool that best suits your needs.

If you already have an .fmw file authored either in ArcGIS Pro or in FME Desktop, you can use it in ArcGIS Pro. You can attach the .fmw file to an ETL tool so it can be used in ArcGIS Pro. This workflow allows you to share your .fmw files with others or run them in the geoprocessing environment.

You can also choose to embed the .fmw file in the toolbox if you want to share a single toolbox and have your users see that workspace. This method works well if you have multiple ETL tools for multiple .fmw files and you want to embed them in a single toolbox, sharing one file.

Spatial ETL Tool

FME Workbench

FME Workbench is an application for creating workflows used for moving data between different formats and applications that often involve more than a format-to-format translation. This application allows you to author workflows that can be repeated and reused on different data. If you want to author workflows in Workbench, you can create a workflow in two different ways.

If you create a new ETL tool, as mentioned in the previous section, a default .fmw Workbench file will be created. The Workbench application will be launched and already reference to a spatial ETL tool, allowing you to author your workflow. This ETL tool will then be ready to run with the data you need to process.

The other way to launch Workbench is to click the Workbench button on the Analysis tab in the Data Interoperability group. This allows you to either open an existing .fmw file or create a new workflow. Later, you can reference or embed it in a spatial ETL tool.

Below is a representation of an .fmw file in the Workbench application.

Workbench