Fill a hole in a polygon feature

A hole in a polygon feature is essentially a part inside a polygon multipart feature. To fill a hole, continue sketching the feature or edit its vertices and delete the part. Alternatively, trace a new feature and copy the attributes. These tools are available in the Modify Features pane.

Note:

To remove a hole based on area calculations, consider using the Eliminate Polygon Part geoprocessing tool.

The following sections describe how to fill a hole in a polygon feature using three different editing tools.

Continue sketching or edit vertices

To fill a hole in a polygon feature, click the Continue Feature tool or Edit Vertices tool and select the feature. Right-click the part header for the part defining the hole in the geometry properties table, and click Delete Part.

1. Add your data and configure settings for editing.

   Confirm that the feature layer you are editing is editable, the coordinate system assigned to the active map is suitable for the type of edits you're performing, and snapping is configured to help you work efficiently and accurately.

2. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Features group, click Modify .

   The Modify Features pane appears.

3. Click Continue Feature or Edit Vertices .

   To find the tool, expand Reshape, or type Cont or Vertices, respectively, in the Search text box.

4. Click the Change the selection tool in the tool pane and select a polyline or polygon feature.

   If you select more than one feature, reselect the feature. Alternatively, click the feature in the pane selection view to flash it in the map, right-click, and click Only Select This .

   Note:

   If you are using Edit Vertices and Map Topology is enabled, click the Features tab.

   The Features and Edges tabs are not required to complete this workflow. These tabs are available only when map topology or a geodatabase topology is enabled so that you can switch between editing feature vertices and topological edges and nodes.

   

   The selected feature appears highlighted in the map with vertex handles. By default, project settings symbolize the first vertex in green and the last vertex in red.

5. Right-click the part header for the hole in the geometry properties table, and click Delete Part .

   Tip:

   Right-click the part header, and click Pan to part if the feature is not in the current view.

   

6. Click Finish on the construction toolbar, or press the F2 key.

Trace a new feature

To trace a new feature, click a feature template for the same layer, click the Trace tool , and trace the polygon feature boundary. Once the feature is created, click the Transfer Attributes tool and transfer attribute values.

1. Add your data and configure settings for editing.

   Confirm that the feature layer you are editing is editable, the coordinate system assigned to the active map is suitable for the type of edits you're performing, and snapping is configured to help you work efficiently and accurately.

2. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Features group, click Create .
3. In the Create Features pane, click a polygon feature template for the same layer.

   To find a feature template containing a specific word or phrase, click the Search box and enter your search criteria. Search is not case sensitive.

4. Click the Trace tool on the template tool palette.

   Alternatively, click the Polygon tool on the tool palette, and click the Trace tool on the construction toolbar.

   Tip:

   Press the O key and confirm that the optional trace setting Trace with an offset is not checked.

5. Trace the boundary of the source feature.

   To avoid inserting unnecessary vertices into the new geometry, complete the following steps:

   1. Snap to a vertex and move the pointer along the feature boundary. A rubber band line shows your progress.
   2. Snap to the last vertex preceding the first vertex you snapped.
   3. Click Finish on the construction toolbar, or press the F2 key.

   The new polygon feature contains the default attribute values defined by the feature template or source geodatabase.

6. Copy the attributes on the source feature to the new target feature.
   1. Click the Transfer Attributes tool in the Modify Features pane.

      To find the tool, expand Attributes, or type Attr in the Search text box.

   2. Click the source feature containing the hole.
   3. Press the Shift key and click the new traced target feature.

   The target feature contains the same attribute values as the source feature.