How Eliminate (Coverage) works

The Eliminate tool is used most often to remove sliver polygons created in an overlay of two coverages where the arc overlap is similar but not exact.

Eliminate reduces the number of polygons or lines in a coverage by merging selected features with one of their neighbors.

Eliminate example

For the POLY option with the Keep polygon boundary option (KEEP_EDGE) selected, the longest arc of each selected polygon is eliminated. For the POLY option with Eliminating polygon by border option unchecked (AREA), the largest adjacent deselected polygon are located, and the arc between it and the selected polygon is eliminated. Label points are eliminated when a whole polygon is eliminated. Topology is then updated. All polygons in the output coverage will have only one label point. For the LINE option, an arc to be eliminated is merged with a connecting arc that preceded it in the processing order of the Eliminate command. The resultant arc will assume the direction of the arc into which the eliminated arc merges.

Features to be eliminated are determined by a set of logical criteria applied to the polygon or arc attributes. You must specify a Selection File that identifies selection features. The logical criteria are defined using the Reselect tool.

Eliminating polygons

Eliminating lines

6/18/2012