Invalid Topology [Distress.] error message during Erase

[RolandSchwietz]

Please also see the post "Error when Erasing" by Joseph Hayes in the old forums.

I'm getting this error message when trying to perform an erase function.  Any suggestions?

ERROR 999999: Error executing function.
Invalid Topology [Distress.]
Failed to execute (Erase).

[RolandSchwietz]

Well I found a work around.  Simply use shapefiles instead of geodatabse feature classes for all inputs and outputs.  Don't ask me why it worked, but it did.  Anyone from ESRI have any ideas?

[SimonWillis]

I like your famous ESRI error code. So useful! Anyway, your error does say invalid topology...do you have topologically clean data before you ran the erase tool?