Source Feature Type Catalogs

This section goes deeper into understanding the usage of Source Feature Catalogs, meant for people who create conversion rule sets.

The challenge starts with the goal to create Models that have content that is well-defined, according to a standard definition of feature types.

Many (most) formats today are not well-defined when it comes to classifying their information as real-world phenomena, or features, the term used by ISO TC211 Feature Cataloguing Standard.

How to import information from a typical CAD file, for example, where the information mainly is coded using a flat structure of layer names? How to inform you as a user about what is converted and what is not converted?

The application has a solution where the file first is read into an intermediate object model, using the source (format-near) Feature Type Catalog, where the feature types are defined based on the original structure of the format itself. Back to the example with layer-based CAD files; The format-near Feature Type Catalog for CAD files includes feature types like “CadPoint”, CadCurve, CadSurface, etc. Each feature type has the capability of containing all the typical CAD-element information, like Layername, LayerColor, LayerDescription, etc.

When the file is read into the intermediate model, we can present it, using either plan or 3D windows inside Novapoint Base. In this way, we can present the content of the file, before it is converted to the features we want in the target model.

When you select a conversion rule and click preview to see the result (still before finishing the import process), we're able to show you what was converted and what was not converted.

You can now click items that were not converted, and read in the Properties panel, what this is.

The idea is that the model should always be able to read ALL information from a file and present it to you.

But to get ALL of this information into the target model, the conversion rulesets used, needs to have a rule for all the information.