Extracting polygon from several feature classes in one process using ArcMap

Question

I've built a polygon and used Clip (Analysis Tools) in order to extract information from several feature classes that intersect the polygon. Of course, I used the clip tool for each feature class.

My boss wants a single tool that clips all these feature clases at once and saves the result in different FC.

Is there a tool in ArcMap that does that?

Select by Graphics is cool, but then I have to export the data "manually". I've created this model, but in the case of the model I don't have the liberty of selecting the area I want to clip every time.

Answer 1

You can use Split by Attribute, Split (Analysis), or if you want to get fancy you can write your own Python script to do this using the following ArcPy methods:

1. Use os.walk to walk through all files in a defined directory
2. Loop and search for files that end with ".shp"
3. Create a feature layer of your clip layer
4. Use arcpy.SearchCursor loop and grab all unique values via a split field to base your split on
5. Use arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management to select each unique feature
6. Use arcpy.Clip_analysis to clip against feature layer and input layer (layer to be clipped)