I am trying to calculate the distance of points with in a polygon to the polygon edge using the “Near” tool. However, when I do this it only returns zeros for distance. I do get a distance measure for an adjacent polygon but not points within a polygon. A

[BrianDorr]

#Near tool

[JayantaPoddar]

If you want the nearest distance of the boundary from each point, you could Convert Polygon to Line. Then, use the Near Tool (between points and line) to get the desired results.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

This behaviour of a point inside a polygon is documented in the .... how it works section ...  See the Special Considerations section... for example.

• When one feature contains or is within another feature, the distance between them is zero.

Plus there are other considerations that are noteworthy