Editing/deleting data from shapefiles

[KathleenMcBride]

I have an xyz file of scanned data from an experimental impact crater.  I am trying to delete or edit out two small outlying areas of data without going through the xyz file and deleting hundreds of points individually.  I have converted the points to a shapefile in Arcmap and have tried to select these areas with the editing tool and "clip" them out of the shapefile.  Nothing happens.  When I try to select the entire crater minus the two small areas I want to exclude, those two areas are somehow attached to other sections of my crater and are included in the selction.

Does anyone out there know how to do this? 

Thanks to any and everyone who has a suggestion!

K

[Zeke]

Are these individual points or a multi-point feature? If multi-point, explode them first. If you have them selected in an edit session, the Delete key should get rid of them, no need to clip. Clipping would require a separate shapefile for the clipping feature.

[KathleenMcBride]

What exactly do you mean by "explode"? These are points in an xyz format converted to a feature class.
Thanks for your reply!

K

[RichardFairhurst]

What exactly do you mean by "explode"? These are points in an xyz format converted to a feature class.
Thanks for your reply!

K

It is a tool on the Advanced Editing toolbar.  In an edit session select the multipoint and press the Explode button on the toolbar.  You will then have one record for every individual point in the multipoint.  After you are done with deleting the out lying points you could use the Editor Merge operation to merge the points you kept back into a multipoint, if you want it that way.

[KathleenMcBride]

Okay, thanks.  I'll try that

K