Cutting holes in raster images in ArcGIS 9.2???

[LisaMcRavey1]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone might be able to help me out?!

I'm pretty new to GIS, and wondering if there is a way to cut a hole in my raster image in the shape of a polygon shapefile I have created? I've seen some responses involving the 'Extract by Mask' tool and the 'Image Analysis Window' tools, but I'm using ArcGIS 9.2, and don't have any additional packages like Spatial Analyst, so neither of these are options for me unfortunately!!

I thought I could use the 'Clip' tool, but it seems to only give the option to keep the contents of the hole, rather than the donut, if you see what I'm saying?? So I'm stuck!

Any help or tips much appreciated - thanks, Lisa

[JimCousins]

If you have access to a clip tool, create the donut and use that to clip.
See "Creating Donuts and island polygons" about halfway down this help page:
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=Common_polygon_editing_tasks
Regards,
Jim

[LisaMcRavey1]

Hi Jim,

Thanks very much for this advice! I can create a 'donut' polygon with the cut-out of the shape I need by following the instructions in the link, but when I try to clip the raster to that, it says successful, but it doesn't work?! I'm left with just another shapefile of the full, untrimmed raster.

The clip tool I'm using is Data Management > Raster > Clip, and I'm setting the Input Raster to the raster image I want to clip, and the Output Extent to my donut polygon.

When I click OK, I get an 'Excecuting Clip' dialogue box which runs for around 2 mins, before I get a successfully completed message. But then looking at the resulting shapefile, as I say, it's just the same as the original?? Any tips much appreciated, not sure what I'm missing!!

Lisa

[JimCousins]

Looking at the tool, it seems to be using the rectangular extent.
How about this:
Select your donut polygon in the data view and then right click on the layer in the table of contents and choose "Convert features to graphics". In the dialog for this, choose "Draw the converted graphics and draw the features". Select the graphic result (with the black selection arrow). Right click on the raster data layer in the table of contents, and choose DATA >> EXPORT DATA. In the dialog for this, under EXTENT in the upper right, select "Selected Graphics".
This also has a "Clip inside" option which would work with your original polygon (the donut hole).
Regards,
Jim

[LisaMcRavey1]

Hi Jim - thanks again!!!

Tried this too - I don't seem to have this 'selected graphics' option in my export data dialogue? (See attached screengrab.) I think maybe because I'm only in Arc 9.2.

So no success unfortunately!!