Cutting a Polygon Using the Shape of Another Polygon Layer in ArcGIS

Question

I have a layer with polygons I have to cut smaller. I also have another layer with the shapes of the polygons I have to use for cutting out some pieces of the polygons on the first layer.

I tried to read the help on "cutting holes in existing polygons" and for some reason I can't do it.

If you're already answering, maybe you could tell me also how can I just cut a hole in existing polygon by freehand?

Answer 1

You can cut a polygon and create hole/holes in several ways:

1. If you want to do it manually, you can use Cut Polygon Tool, as you can see below,

• Select the polygon and use Cut polygon Tool to draw the polygon you want
• Before finish the sketched polygon, you need to to enable Snap to Sketch in the snapping toolbar to close the sketched polygon properly, then hit F2 or finish sketch, as you can see below:

• Then select the polygon you drew in step 2 and hit delete, and save edits.

2. If you want to create a hole based on another polygon you can use Erase Tool, but it requires advanced license, or you can use Union tool, and select the polygon that represents the hole and delete it.