Programming MapPoint in .NET

Appendix B. Working with Polygons

In some cases, you may need more than just one point to represent your entities. For example, if you have a call center territory and you need to model it spatially, you cannot do that using a point, since it contains a set of points that make up the territory shape. If you need to define more than a single point location in a data source, you can create a polygon data source .

In MapPoint Web Service, like point data sources, polygon data sources include spatial and non-spatial entities. A polygon data source allows you to define one or more regions on a map. You can then use these regions to find spatial relations to other polygons (such as rectangles), point data sources, addresses, and specific geographic locations. For example, you may define the delivery area for a store as a polygon. You can then look up a customer’s address and determine whether it is within the delivery area. Polygons can be as simple as a single ring of connected points, or may be complex, with an external ring containing numerous internal rings that define areas not included in the polygon.

What Is a Polygon?

Polygons are defined by an ordered series of latitude/longitude points (vertices) with an implied connection between consecutive vertices and between the last and first vertex. A polygon data source can contain one or more polygons, and a single polygon data source can contain up to 500 vertices. Each polygon consists of a single external ring and may include ...