idea Spatial definition query in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Spatial definition query

HenkZwols — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:36:46 GMT

I would like to be able to apply a spatial definition query to a layer.

I.e. Select features from this pointlayer that are within a feature from buildingpolygons.

Defining a query must be as easy as it can be done in the Select By Location dialog.

The result of the query is updated when features that are involved are modified.

Re: Spatial definition query

PiergiorgioRoveda1 — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:26:28 GMT

Spatial Relationship Class

Re: Spatial definition query

RamonGallegos — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:54:07 GMT

This seems like a terribly useful function. for example I have a polygon layer and a point layer. the spatial extent of the points is beyond the polygons. I want to create a map that only displays points that are inside the polygons and exclude points outside of the polygons. I can't manipulate the point attribute table and I don't want to create a layer based on selection. This seems like such an elementary aspect of spatial analysis that it should be as available to users as a definition query is in the layer properties dialog.

Re: Spatial definition query

ChrisFox — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:51:37 GMT

Hi ramong, I believe you can accomplish this workflow by going to the Data Frame Properties > Data Frame > Clipping Options > Clip to Shape. Next click specify shape and in the Data Frame Clipping Dialog select Outline of Features and select your polygon layer. Next you can click exclude layers to exclude all other layers than the points and the output will be showing only the points inside the polygon.

Re: Spatial definition query

BerendVeldkamp — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:01:14 GMT

Chris,

Clipping may work in some cases, but some tools do not recognize clipped features. For instance, when creating a mobile cache from an mxd, the definition query can limit the number of exported features, whereas clipping does not.

Re: Spatial definition query

RobertKlein3 — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:26:54 GMT

This might come in handy; would it also make sense to expand the functionality to turn any selection subset into a definition query, and retain that definition query once you clear selected features?

Re: Spatial definition query

LenWilson — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 06:49:41 GMT

Was just about to write the exact same thing but you got in before me 🙂 Awesome idea......

Trying to temporary highlight problem bridges only on certain roads.... but not affect the original source... or create extra redundant copies of data.

The clip suggestion isn't quiet the same

Re: Spatial definition query

GrahamMorgan — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:25:05 GMT

Can't belive that this basic functionality still isn't available!

Re: Spatial definition query

RaymondBrunner — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:55:24 GMT

Using the result of a Spatial Definition Query would be helpful for publishing regions with ArcGIS for Server.

It would be useful to publish a geographic portion of the production enterprise geodatabase, negating the need to perform a distributed geodatabase replica.

Re: Spatial definition query

JosephMcGehan1 — Thu, 01 May 2014 04:18:37 GMT

This function would be good as it could be called with ArcPy. Therefore avoiding the 9 click ArcGIS Desktop dataframe properties manual method. It already exists at within production mapping (old PLTS), maybe it should be made apart of the mapping module.

### arcpyproduction EXAMPLE:
    arcpyproduction.mapping.ClipDataFrameToGeometry (data_frame, clip_geometry, {exclusion_layers})

Re: Spatial definition query

MorganGrundy — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 08:27:13 GMT

Please esri.

Re: Spatial definition query

JayGuarneri — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:34:19 GMT

I would really love to be able to use this functionality in SearchCursors to minimize the number of features I need to loop through.

Re: Spatial definition query

MikeJones6 — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 20:25:56 GMT

You can't publish services with the "Clip to Shape" function turned on. The work around doesn't even work for everything. AutoCAD has had this for a few years now, maybe more.

Re: Spatial definition query

KiraNelson1 — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 19:09:54 GMT

I would love to be able to use this for editing, for example finding all points that aren't connected to lines, and having the selection refresh after edits.

Re: Spatial definition query

GreggRoemhildt1 — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 16:52:57 GMT

This idea is a good start to a similar idea I had.

Instead of simplifying it to Clipping it would be awesome to allow definition queries that implement the arcpy Geometry api, or the SQL relational functions for ArcSDE.

Arcpy Geometry API:

Geometry—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Select features that are with 10 units to another:

where: SHAPE.distanceTo(other_table.SHAPE) = 10

Select features contained in the other:

where: SHAPE.contains(other_table.SHAPE)

SQL Relational Functions:

A quick tour of SQL functions used with ST_Geometry—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

For example, select features that touch another:

Where: SHAPE@.ST_Touches(other_table.SHAPE@)

features that are equal to another (geometrically):

Where: SHAPE@.ST_Equals(other_Table.SHAPE@)

Re: Spatial definition query

JoshuaBixby — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 01:49:36 GMT

While I agree that such functionality would be handy, it does come with some risk. Spatial predicates are much more expensive than other predicates in DBMSs, and that is true when spatial indexes exist and are well tuned. If data sets either don't have spatial indexes, don't have them well tuned, or the DBMS chooses not to use them; well, the performance can be downright miserable.

Given there is a very real chance the performance of a spatial predicate will be quite poor, the software maker takes a beating for something they have little control over. What if a spatial predicate takes 2+ seconds to execute, possibly even 5+ seconds? Every time a user goes to zoom or pan, the screen just hangs for protracted periods of time. What if a map service is made out of that layer, how will that look to people consuming the service?

I can understand the desire for such functionality, I just think there is too much risk involved for Esri. Over time, the risk may diminish and make it more feasible, but I don't see it happening in the near term. That said, if one is working with enterprise DBMSs, then some of this functionality can be implemented at the storage level and brought into ArcGIS.

Re: Spatial definition query

AlexZhuk — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 20:48:51 GMT

Also, clipping clips labels. Can look awkward.

Re: Spatial definition query

KumaitMuhammed — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 10:45:08 GMT

While this can be achieved by using a normal definition query and utilize the used RDBMS spatial capabilities, it will however require disabling the standardized queries on the ArcGIS server to be able to spatially filter against a map service.

Providing such function by ArcGIS would be much cleaner.

Re: Spatial definition query

DWR_BuckEhler — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 16:26:56 GMT

This workaround does not limit the data in the database. It only limits what is drawn in the clipping extent.

Re: Spatial definition query

JeffThomasILM — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:14:38 GMT

I understand performance is a problem, but would it be possible to cache the selection set? E.g., You open the map and the layer with the spatial query grabs an up-to-date snapshot and caches it (or a portion of it, like Feature Cache in ArcMap) and remains static for the rest of the session or until the user chooses to manually refresh. This wouldn't work for constantly changing data, but it seems like it would work fine if the data only needs to be refreshed daily or weekly, and it's being used as a reference more than for active editing. Maybe that's too big of a caveat to bother explaining or implementing, but I think it would be worthwhile.