Get Agents To Move Within a Raster Surface

[alighazi]

I have crated a Raster surface in ArcMap using the 'Raster Creation' in 'Spatial Analyst Tools'. I also have a data layer which is consisted of a handful of cougars (agents) each of which has a random X,Y (These agents are loaded from a shape file).

What I want to do is that, I want to write a couple of different 'move actions' for the agents in Agent Analyst so that the agents:

1. are initially placed inside the boundaries of the raster surface.
2. can only move 'within the boundaries of the raster surface'. In other words I don't want the agents to be able to go out of the surface.

Currently the agents are put outside the surface. The coordinate system of raster surface is known. So do I need to first set the coordinate system of the data layer (the layer the agents are in)? How?

If I can solve problem 1, the next seems to be much easier.

Thank you all very much.

[RobertBerger]

Ali,

It sounds like you need to specify the restraint as part of the creation of the random points. If you use geoprocessing tools such as "Create Random Points" you can specify the extent in which these points should fall. Alternately you can create a feature as the boundary. The second constraint of not being able to move outside the boundary should be part of your agent modeling. I am not familiar with Agent Analyst so I don't know how you would set up the boundary there.
Hope this helps.

Robert

[alighazi]

Thank you Robert,

Actually all I needed to do to initially place the agents inside my raster was to use the "Editor Toolbar" in ArcMap, and modify the agents' (points') locations by selecting them all, dragging and dropping them into the boundaries of the raster surface and saving the changes. And about keeping them inside the boundaries, you were right. I did it using the number of columns and rows of the surface and by making sure that the agent's coordinates will not exceed these values.

🙂