Clipping Option Not Always Available

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08-27-2014 07:51 AM
RobertWright3
New Contributor

This should be a simple task.  I have a large simple polygon, a US County, and another shapefile of small polygons that fall within that County.  I want to create "holes" in the large polygon where the small polygons occur.  Here's the rub.  If I select one of those polygons, and start editing the large polygon, the CLIP option is available and functions correctly.  If, however, I select two or more polygons, the CLIP option is NOT available...most importantly, I would like to select ALL of the small polygons and CLIP them in a single action.  When I do Select All of the small polygons, however, as when selecting just two, the CLIP option is not available.  Can anyone tell me what I am going "wrong" or why this is the case.

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2 Replies
TimWitt2
MVP Alum

Robert.

You could use the ArcGIS Help 10.1  erase tool, to do this for you. That might be quicker.

Tim

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RobertWright3
New Contributor

I stumbled onto the answer to this question...the small polygons must be merged before you can use them as a "cookie cutter" to clip holes in the larger polygon.  Once I merged them, the clip option was available and functioned as anticipated.

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