topic Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon? in AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) Questions

How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

NataliaGutierrez2 — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 16:49:54 GMT

Hello,

I am working with a parcel shapefile of an entire state. I need to remove all of the building polygons falling inside the bigger parcel polygon. These are not donut holes but instead separate polygons.

I can't erase each polygon manually because I am working with the entire state dataset.

What geoprocessing tool should I use?

I have attached an image below:

Thank you!

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:22:34 GMT

select by location using 'completely contain'. I think!... been a long time, since I tried this. same file as target and source

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

NataliaGutierrez2 — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 18:26:09 GMT

Thank you Dan, it worked!

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

ChrisDonohue__GISP — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 18:39:10 GMT

If you have the polygons attributed such as to distinguish the ones you want to remove (buildings) from the larger parcel, one could go into edit mode, do a Select By Attribute to just pick the buildings, then hit the Delete button on your keyboard (or alternately in the attribute table hit the X icon that represents "Delete Selected". Or as a safer route, instead do a Select By Attribute for the non-buildings (don't go into Edit Mode) and then export as a new feature class.

The tricky part will be if the polygons are not differentiated.

Using Select By Attributes—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Chris Donohue, GISP

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

NataliaGutierrez2 — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 18:58:08 GMT

Chris, thank you for your answer. This could have helped but I don't have any attribute data other than the parcel ID so I do not have a way to identify which are buildings and which are not.

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 19:57:33 GMT

Glad it worked out Natalia

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

NataliaGutierrez2 — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 21:38:12 GMT

Dan, now that I am trying it out in a bigger dataset that includes all of the parcels from a county this method is not working. It seems as if it did not recognize the polygons completely within another polygon.

Should I do something else instead?

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 01:08:39 GMT

'completely contain' wasn't that the one that worked before??

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

NataliaGutierrez2 — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 14:36:08 GMT

Yes, I was using 'Completely Within' but I was trying it on specific parcels on a separate mxd, but when I tried it on the mxd that contains all of the county parcels it did not work.

It seems as if it does not recognize the parcels that are within another one.

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 15:44:24 GMT

try 'Contains Clementini'

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

NataliaGutierrez2 — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 14:08:20 GMT

Dan thank you for your help.

I was able to use 'Completely Within" by duplicating the feature class since this tool only works with two feature classes.

This was the problem I was having.

Re: How to delete Polygons within a bigger polygon?

DanPatterson_Retired — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 17:19:12 GMT

Yes, as in my initial response, you need to use the same file for both inputs.