Select by location.

[BryanHouk]

I have a buffer that I'm using to select polygons that are included in the buffer area. This includes polygons that are intersected by the buffer. However, some of the polygons are very small and are completely within the buffer. I can't get these to select. I've tried every selection option that there is, and none of them work. To me, the ones that make the most sense are either "are within the source layer feature" or "have their centroid in the source layer feature." But neither of these make new selections.

I've done Select By Location many times but for some reason this time it's getting the best of me. Please help.

Thanks.

[JamesPierce]

Where did you get the small polygons?  Did you create them, or are they from an outside source?  You may check the draw direction of each.

[BryanHouk]

The polygons are parcel data which was given to us by the state. I work for a state agency. The buffer came from an engineering firm wanting to purchase data.

[FilipKrál]

How strange...

Can you tell us more details? What version of ArcGIS do you have? How many features are involved approximately? What are roughly the areas of the small polygons and of the large polygons? Are there multi-part polygons or just single-part polygons?

Have you tried CheckGeometry and RepairGeometry?

[SepheFox]

That's odd. Of course you've tried intersect, right?

[BryanHouk]

Yes, I can do that and get 588 results. But I know there are more that are completely inside the buffer. I've tried to add to the current selection. I've even tried just selecting the ones inside first, without doing the intersect. The buffer is 400 feet wide and many miles long. One of the parcels that is inside the buffer is over 3 acres of land. Of course some of them are much much smaller than that, but that's a large piece of land that it's not selecting.

[SepheFox]

Just as a test, what if you use the clip tool to cut out the parcels within the buffer? Does it still exclude those same polygons?

[DarrenWiens2]

Have you ensured that your poorly behaving polygons aren't multipart, with a part outside your buffer? Select a polygon and zoom to selected to make sure.

[BryanHouk]

Darren, no I selected some of them randomly and zoomed to selected. It was just the one part. It only happens on the ones that are completely within the buffer. But even then it doesn't do that for all of them. It selects some of them.

I appreciate the help from everybody. But I was on a deadline. So I selected the ones that intersect the buffer and then had to go through and select the others one by one.