source drawings and copy them into your current drawing. There are several different location queries
Start with an empty drawing. To begin the process, attach some source drawings. In the Task Pane,
Map Explorer tab, right-click Drawings and click Attach. Select your drive alias, navigate to the
dataset folder, and then select the Drainage, Parcel, and Sewer drawings. Click Add, and then click
OK. For now, query only objects from the Parcel drawing, so deactivate the Sewer and the Drainage
drawings. This is a very effective way to limit the objects that you include in a query.
Now, looking at your screen, you are faced with a common dilemma when defining location queries,
which is that there is nothing on the screen to orient you in the location that you want to define. A
simple solution to this is to execute a Quick View to bring in an image of some of the objects that are
in the source drawings. Right-click the Parcels drawing and select Quick View. If you still don't see
the objects that have been quick viewed, zoom to the extents of those objects. Now you can see the
Parcel drawing. This gives you some reference while you create location queries. Zoom in a little bit
to your area of interest, and then in the Map Explorer, double-click the Current query.
In the Define Query of Attached Drawing(s) dialog, click Location. For this query, select Circle. Leave
the Selection Type set to Crossing, and then click Define. In the drawing screen, pick the location for
the center of the circle and then drag out to define the basic area that you are interested in. You could
use object snaps and enter a radius distance, if you need precision.
Once you have defined the radius, the Define Query dialog opens again. And at the top, you can see
in the query that you have defined a location, crossing circle query. In the bottom center under Query
The drawing window changes so that you can only see the results of your query. The command line
reports the number of objects that are either fully within, or crossing the circle. These objects have
been copied from the source drawing Parcels, into the current drawing.
Next, try defining a different type of location condition query. But first, go back to the Map Explorer,
right-click the Parcels drawing, and select Quick View, to restore the full Parcel drawing preview.
For this query, you want to focus in on a specific block within the city. Double-click Current Query, to
return to the Define Query dialog. Before you begin to add any additional location criteria, the first
thing you need to do is to clear the existing query by selecting the Clear Query button. Then select
Location, and this time select Polygon. For Selection Type, select Inside, and click Define.
In the drawing window, draw a polygon around the block that you want to retrieve, and press ENTER.
In the Define Query dialog, click Execute Query. The drawing now shows the results of this new
query.
Next, create a query that is a little more complex and interesting, so you can begin to see how
powerful queries can be. Start by quick viewing the Parcels again, and then zoom to an area to create
this next query. In this scenario, you want to query all of the objects from all of the drawings that fall
within 150 feet of the centerline of this street. The first thing to do is activate the Drainage and Sewer
drawings. Then, double-click the Current Query. In the Define Query dialog, clear the existing query,
and click Location. This time, under Boundary Type, use a Buffer Fence, and click Define.
Buffer Fence allows you to draw a line down the middle of the street. Again, you can be as precise as
you want, but in this case just make it somewhat close to the center of the street. Once the line is
defined, press ENTER. The command line asks you for a buffer fence width. Enter 150, and press
ENTER. This reopens the Define Query dialog. This time for Query Mode, select Draw to actually
copy the objects into the current drawing. Click Execute Query.
When you zoom in, you can see that these are individual objects that now reside as native objects to
this current drawing. You can also go to the Layer Properties Manger, and you can see that all of the
layers have been defined within this drawing as a part of that query. These layers were copied into
You can see that there are a number of methods to use as a part of location queries, and that they
are a very powerful way to extract precise information from large drawings, and from a large number
of drawings.