Expand to Fill gaps between shapes

Expand to Fill grows every shape in a group into the empty space around it. Where two shapes grow toward each other, they stop at the halfway line, so they fill the gap without overlapping. Each shape stays its own shape with its own style, name and attributes.

Use it to close gaps and thin slivers between parcels, sales territories, zones or areas you traced by hand.

Expand to Fill or Merge All? Merge All joins shapes into one shape. Expand to Fill keeps them separate and splits the gap between them.

Expand to Fill is a Pro feature.

Open Expand to Fill

For a folder of shapes:

1. Right-click the folder in the overlay list, or click its ⋯ menu.
2. Under Group Shape, choose Expand to Fill.

For shapes you selected: select two or more shapes, right-click one of them and choose Expand to Fill.

Set the distance

1. Enter a Distance and pick a unit. This is the farthest any shape can grow.
2. A red outline shows the result on the map. Dashed lines show each shape's full range: how far it would grow if no neighbor were in the way. Change the distance until the gaps you want are filled. Tick Hide Range(s) to hide the dashed lines.
3. Click Confirm to apply it, or Cancel to leave your shapes as they were.

With Keep Outer Edge on, a gap closes when it is less than twice the distance wide, because the shapes on both sides each grow toward the middle. If you see "Nothing to fill. Increase the distance.", no shape could grow at that distance.

Keep Outer Edge

Keep Outer Edge is on by default.

• On: shapes only grow into the gaps between them. The outside edge of the group stays where it is.
• Off: shapes also grow outward by the distance on every open side, still stopping where they meet a neighbor.

Good to know

• Only polygons, rectangles and circles grow. Lines and markers in the folder are left alone.
• Rectangles and circles become polygons when they grow.
• A shape never grows into a neighbor's area, even where two shapes already overlap.
• Undo (Ctrl + Z, or Cmd + Z on Mac) reverses the whole change in one step.
• If a shape crosses over itself, the tool can fail with "These shapes could not be expanded." Fix the shape first, for example with the Geometry Validator, then try again.