Maptitude Help / Filters, Queries, and Selection Sets / Selecting Features by Location

Selecting Features by Location

A location question is used to find map features that are located in a particular area. For example, which customers live within 5 miles of a store? Maptitude lets you select features in one layer (the working layer) based on how close they are to, or how far they are from, features in another layer (the reference layer).

Customer locations within 5 miles of a store highlighted on a map

Customers are shown by default with a blue dot. The customers that are shown with red dots are all within five miles of one of the stores.

Maptitude also lets you select lines and endpoints of lines based on how they are connected. A line geographic file has two layers, one for the lines themselves and one for endpoints of the lines. You can select the lines that begin or end at selected endpoints, or the endpoints that are at the ends of selected lines.

NOTE: The endpoint layer is normally hidden. You can show the layer by using the Map>Layers command. See To Change the Layers in a Map for more information.

If the reference layer is a non-topological area layer, you have options for dealing with overlapping portions of those areas. For more information on non-topological area layers, see Using the Non-Topological Area Editing Tools.

Selecting features from one layer based on the location of features in another has many uses, for example:

If you want to...	Select from the reference layer...	And then select...
Find airports near an Interstate highway	Interstate highways	Airports within 5 miles of the selected highways
Find customers in a sales territory	The sales territory of interest	Customers inside the selected territory
Find stores far from a distribution outlet	Distribution outlets	Stores not within 50 miles of the selected outlets
Find homes near schools	Schools	Homes within 0.5 miles of the selected schools

For a video tutorial see: (Internet connection required)

• Working with Maptitude Selection Sets: Using the selection tools, selecting by location, selecting by attribute, combining selection sets, and computing statistics

Blue triangle icon To Select Features by Location

Select one or more features in the reference layer, using any of the selection tools or selection commands.
From the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar, choose the working layer — the layer whose features you want to select.
Choose Selection>Select by Location to display the Select by Location dialog box.

Choose the reference layer from the Layer drop-down list.
Choose whether to use all features in the reference layer or a selection set from the first Selection Set drop-down list.
Choose a selection method from the drop-down list, and enter a distance if the method requires it. The options you see will vary depending on whether you are working with points, lines, or areas:

Option	Use it to...
touching or contained	Select features that are contained within or touch features in the reference layer
inside	Select features that are inside features in the reference layer
not inside	Select features that are not inside features in the reference layer
within	Select features within the specified distance of features in the reference layer
not within	Select features that are not within the specified distance of features in the reference layer
closest and within	Select, for each feature in the reference layer, the closest feature, as long as it is within a specified distance of the features in the reference layer
connected	Select line features that begin or end at the endpoints selected in the reference layer, or select endpoint features that are at the ends of the lines selected in the reference layer
select whether or not areas overlap	Select features that are inside any features in a reference layer of non-topological areas
select only in areas that do not overlap	Select features that are inside a single feature in a reference layer of non-topological areas
select only in overlapping areas	Select features that are in two or more features in a reference layer of non-topological areas

Choose an existing selection set from, or type the name of a new selection set in, the Selection Set editable drop-down list.
Choose how to store the results from the Selection Method drop-down list as follows:

Method	Meaning
Create a set	Creates a new selection set with the name you type
Add to set	Adds records to an existing selection set
Remove from set	Removes records from an existing selection set
Subset	Selects only from those records that are already in an existing selection set

Click OK.

Maptitude selects records according to your settings, and highlights the result.

Try It Yourself: Selecting Features Using Another Layer

1. Choose File>Open Workspace or click on the Standard toolbar, then open the RhodeIsland workspace in the Tutorial folder.

2. Click in the Selection Tools drop-down on the Standard toolbar to activate the Select by Pointing tool and click on Providence County (the farthest North of the counties) to select it.

3. Right-click on the Place layer in the Display Manager and choose Make Working Layer.

4. Choose Selection>Select by Location to display the Select by Location dialog box.

5. Verify that County and Selection are chosen in the first two drop-down lists. Choose inside from the third drop-down list.

6. Click OK. Maptitude selects the places within Providence county and highlights them on the map.

7. Choose Selection>Select by Location again and choose not inside from the third drop-down list.

8. Click OK. Maptitude selects the places outside of Providence county.

9. Choose File>Close Workspace and click Don't Save to close the workspace without saving any changes.