Generate Desire Lines (Business Analyst)—ArcGIS Pro

Available with Business Analyst license.

Summary

Creates a series of lines from each customer to an associated store location. These lines are often called spider diagrams.

Note:

This tool is similar to the Generate Origin-Destination Links tool, found in the Analysis toolbox Proximity toolset.

Illustration

Usage

The store layer and customer layer must be a point feature class.
Creating desire lines with drive time and drive distance will take longer than using the straight-line (Euclidean) distance method.
The output shows the spatial distribution between the Store Layer and the Customer Layer and calculates the distance values between each store and customer.

Syntax

arcpy.ba.DesireLines(in_stores_layer, in_customers_layer, out_feature_class, store_id_field, link_field, {distance_type}, {units}, {cutoff}, {travel_direction}, {time_of_day}, {time_zone})

Parameter	Explanation	Data Type
in_stores_layer	Input point layer representing store or facility locations.	Feature Layer
in_customers_layer	Input point layer representing customers or patrons.	Feature Layer
out_feature_class	The resultant feature class that will be added to the Contents pane.	Feature Class
store_id_field	Unique ID representing a store or facility location.	Field
link_field	An ID used to assign individual customers to stores.	Field
distance_type (Optional)	Defines how distance is calculated based on the method of travel. Straight Line is the default value. When using Portal for ArcGIS or local data sources, travel mode options are dynamically populated.	String
units (Optional)	Defines the type of distance- or time-measuring units to be used when calculating minimal distance.	String
cutoff (Optional)	The distance beyond which customers will be considered outliers and therefore excluded from consideration during desire line creation.	Double
travel_direction (Optional)	Specifies whether to measure travel times or distances from stores to demand points or from demand points to stores. TOWARD_STORES —Direction of travel is from stores to demand points. This is the default. AWAY_FROM_STORES —Direction of travel is from demand points to stores.	String
time_of_day (Optional)	The time at which travel begins.	Date
time_zone (Optional)	Specifies the time zone of the Time of Day parameter. UTC —The Time of Day parameter refers to coordinated universal time (UTC). Choose this option if you want to choose the best location for a specific time, such as now, but aren't certain in which time zone the stores or demand points will be located. TIME_ZONE_AT_LOCATION —The Time of Day parameter refers to the time zone in which the stores or demand points are located. If Travel Direction is stores to demand points, this is the time zone of the stores. If Travel Direction is demand points to stores, this is the time zone of the demand points. This is the default.	String

Code sample

DesireLines example (stand-alone script)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the DesireLines tool.

import arcpy
arcpy.env.baDataSource = "ONLINE;US;"
arcpy.ba.DesireLines("Hubs", "grocery stores", r"C:\Temp\Output.gdb\Hubs_DesireLines", "Loc_name", "Loc_name", "STRAIGHT_LINE_DISTANCE", "MILES", 15, "TOWARD_STORES", None, "TIME_ZONE_AT_LOCATION")

Environments

Current Workspace, Data Source, Network Source

Licensing information

Basic: Requires Business Analyst
Standard: Requires Business Analyst
Advanced: Requires Business Analyst