Getting geometry network data from File Geodatabase

Question

I have a GDB file with the power distribution utility data set. I was able to get data (File Geodatabase Feature Class) from the GDB file by using QGIS's OpenFileGDB. The remaining information which I need is represented by File Geodatabase Geometry Network. The Geometry network should contain connectivity information of the features.

I have tried QGIS OpenFileGDB and also ESRI FileGDB but none of them gave me the required information.

Does anybody know how to extract this data from the GDB file?

Answer 1

The File Geodatabase API documentation README states (near line 159):

NOT SUPPORTED:

While the Esri File Geodatabase API supports reading the schema and data of complex geodatabase types, the API does not honor geodatabase behavior on inserts, deletes or updates to the following dataset types:

* Annotation and Dimension feature classes
* Relationship Classes
* Networks (GN and ND)
* Topologies
* Terrains
* Representations
* Parcel Fabrics

This seems to indicate that you can read the base geometry from the Esri API, but there isn't any access to the ArcObjects network topology components (connectivity) through FileGDBAPI DLL. Since the Esri API does not support it, the reverse-engineered API clone isn't likely to, either, making it far more difficult for QGIS to provide it (with either implementation).

Esri's purpose in releasing the API was to support read/write of simple data in file geodatabase format, to facilitate open source tools' manipulation of file geodatabase data. Implementing more complex behaviors would have greatly expanded the scope of the effort, and greatly increased the code which would have had to be rewritten to support the release of the library.