Merge Overlapping Polygons

Combines overlapping polygons on the same layer into single, non-overlapping polygons.

When to Use

• To simplify geometry before export
• To create clean outlines from overlapping fills
• Before de-embed or hole extraction operations

Options

Option	Description	Default
Selected layers only	Process only selected layers	Off

How It Works

1. Groups polygons by layer
2. Computes the union of all overlapping polygons within each layer
3. Replaces the originals with the merged result

Before:

┌───────┐
│   A   │
│   ┌───┼───┐
│   │   │   │
└───┼───┘   │
    │   B   │
    └───────┘

After:

┌───────────┐
│           │
│  A ∪ B    │
│           │
└───────────┘

Technical Notes

• Non-overlapping polygons on the same layer are left unchanged
• The merge operation preserves the layer assignment
• This is equivalent to a boolean OR (union) per layer
• Processing time depends on the number of polygons and their complexity