Clipping is great, except when you don't want to alter the original geometries, such as when you want to select overlapping features. Or, in other cases, you just want filter the geometries based on nonspatial attributes. To achieve both of these results, you can utilize the Selection tools in combination with Save Layer As.. to extract just the features of interest. This recipe uses spatial selection methods to extract a subset of original polygons without altering them.
Select polygons from
geology.shpthat overlap with Wake County (census_wake2000.shp) by navigating to Vector | Research Tools | Select by location.Select the feature in geology.
Intersect the features in
census_wake2000.Modify the current selection by creating new selection.
Click on OK:
Now, you will see the matching features highlighted (by default in yellow):
If the selection looks good, use the...