test if a polygon falls within another polygon

[msknowles]

How would one go about testing if a polygon falls within another polygon in workstation?

I have randomly moved a polygon within the extent of a study area polygon. It is possible for the random polygon to fall within the extent, but outside the boundary, of the study area. I'm not sure if there's an obvious way that I'm overlooking.

Thanks,
Mike

[vangelo]

Ad-hoc tests could be done in ARCPLOT with RESELECT and/or ASELECT. I believe you
want the WITHIN option (you could also test for the number of polygons NE 1)

Bulk processing could be done a number of ways, but POLYGON-on-POLYGON overlay
usually needed clever use of regions and/or region-polygon lists to model the many-to-
many relationships involved.

- V

[curtvprice]

I agree with Vince. Arcplot is the way to do this most efficiently.

arcplot
reselect pcov poly studycov poly overlap # within
&if [extract 1 [show select pcov poly]] eq 0 &then ~
  &type pcov is outside of studycov
&else &type pcov is inside polycov

RESELECT with OVERLAP does require some topological processing (unlike dealing with extents [ArcGIS "envelopes"]) so it is a little slower than your garden variety spatial selection.