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I'm very much a beginner to ArcMap. Is there an easy way I can clip the Continental United States from this data layer and get rid of Alaska, Hawaii, and the other islands.

I saw some tutorials using ArcSwat. Would that be a useful option? I have ArcMap 10.6.1 and I know the ArcSwat tool only goes to ArcMap 10.4. I'm using a work computer and am not sure that I would be able to get an older version of ArcMap.

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    Have you tried using a Definition Query? Just right-click the layer in the Table of Contents --> Properties --> Definition Query tab. From there you can exclude or filter out certain features based on their attributes... in this case, something like NAME NOT IN ('Hawaii', 'Alaska') – mikeLdub Feb 21 '19 at 15:10
  • I ended up finding a way to clip the layer. Thank you for your suggestion. – Stacey M Feb 21 '19 at 18:48
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You won't be able to use Clip to extract a continental US unless you already have another continental US feature. You can, however, Select and Export the features you need.

  1. Choose the Select by Rectangle tool.

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  1. With the Select by Rectangle tool, draw a rectangle around the continental US.

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  1. After you complete the rectangle, your selected features will be highlighted in cyan.

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  1. Right-click on your layer and choose Data/ Export Data....

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  1. Make sure you export only Selected Features. Choose a suitable output location and feature class. Here, I'm illustrating using a shapefile (.shp) as the feature class storage format. Shapefiles are relatively easy to work with, but they do have certain limitations you may need to address at some point.

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  1. When prompted, add the exported data to your map.

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  1. Disable (uncheck) your original layer and leave your new layer checked to show only the continental US.

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  • I ended up finding a a way to clip the layer using this rectangle method. Thanks – Stacey M Feb 21 '19 at 18:48
  • @StaceyM great! If appropriate, please mark this answer as the accepted answer. Or, if your method differed, contribute your own answer and mark that as accepted. – Andy Feb 21 '19 at 19:07

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