Why is setting the coordinate system for the reader in this exercise not strictly necessary?

• A. Many spatial formats store information about the coordinate system they are using. If they have this information, FME will use it to set the correct system when you run the workspace.
• B. Setting the coordinate system is not necessary for reprojection.
• C. FME automatically assigns a coordinate system to all data when you run the workspace.
• D. Setting the coordinate system this way will cause errors.

Answer: (A)

Coordinate system metadata is part of the spatial data's information. Many formats, like Shapefile (with its .prj) or GeoTIFF, carry the CRS inside the file. When FME reads such data, it automatically uses that embedded coordinate system and applies it to the features as they are loaded. Because of that, you don’t need to manually set the reader’s coordinate system for every dataset—the correct system is already available from the data itself. You only need to intervene if the CRS is missing from the data or you want to override it or reproject to a different system.