Generate desire lines

Available with Business Analyst license.

Desire lines are convenient Euclidian shortcuts that do not follow routes. These paths do not illustrate constructed routes, but rather show the desired connection between sites (such as stores or facilities) and candidates (such as customers, clients, patrons, or patients). For instance, a retailer could use desire lines to identify consumer behavior and shopping patterns, such as weekday shoppers travelling shorter distances than weekend shoppers.

ArcGIS Business Analyst Pro represents desire lines as rays on a map connecting a site (a store or facility) to its associated location points (potential candidates, such as customers, clients, patients, or patrons). The Generate Desire Lines tool generates a layer of color-coded straight lines that shows the spatial distance between sites and their associated location points. The color and thickness of the desire lines can be modified to represent the proportional weight of the potential candidate. For instance, a hospital may weight desire lines based on the number of hospital stays per year.

Use the Generate Desire Lines tool

To generate desire lines, do the following:

1. On the Analysis tab, in the Geoprocessing group, click Tools.

   The Geoprocessing pane appears.

2. On the Toolboxes tab, in the Business Analyst Tools section, expand the Analysis toolset and click Generate Desire Lines.

   The Generate Desire Lines tool opens in the Geoprocessing pane.

3. Use the Customer Layer drop-down menu to choose the input point layer that will represent candidates (customers, clients, patients, or patrons).

   Note:

   The customer layer must have a unique ID that can be linked to a unique ID in the store layer.

4. Use the Output Feature Class drop-down menu to choose the resultant feature class that will be added to the Contents pane.
5. For store information, do the following:
   1. Click Store Layer to select the input point layer that represents store or facility locations.
   2. Use the Store ID Field drop-down menu to select the field that represents store or facility location in the analysis.
   3. Use the Associated Store ID Field drop-down menu to assign individual candidates (customers, clients, patients, or patrons) to store or facility locations.
6. Optionally, enter the following parameters:
   • Use the Distance Type drop-down menu to set the method of travel that will be used for distance calculations.
   • Use the Measure Units drop-down menu to set the type of distance measuring units that will be used when calculating minimal distance.
   • Enter a value for the Cutoff field to set the distance beyond which customers will be considered outliers and excluded from consideration during desire line generation.
   • Click Network Parameters to use an expanded menu of options to set the time of day and time zone.
7. Optionally, create a Wind Rose report by doing the following:
   1. Click the Create Report check box to create a Wind Rose report.

      The default is unchecked, which does not create a report.

   2. Click Report Options to use an expanded menu of options. Enter the name of the report, assign an output report folder directory to save the report, and set a report format.
8. Click Run.

   Desire lines are returned in three places:

   • Desire lines are represented as color-coded straight lines on the map that illustrate the spatial distance between sites and their associated location points.
   • A desire lines layer in the Contents pane includes the corresponding distance type attribute values.
   • Optionally, they are returned in a Wind Rose report, which is stored in the output folder that you assigned it.

Now that you have generated desire lines, you can change the way that the data is represented. See Symbolize feature layers for an overview of symbolization methods.

Geoprocessing tool

This page describes the functionality of the Generate Desire Lines tool. You can also use this geoprocessing tool in a Python script or model. To learn more, see Generate Desire Lines in the ArcGIS Pro tool reference.

Reports

You can create a Wind Rose report that describes the distribution and direction of candidate location points around a site. In this report, the length of the sector represents the median distance of the location points from the site per sector and the color represents the number of location points in that sector. Additionally, you can view an annotated guide for assistance interpreting the report.

• Wind Rose Report (sample)
• Interpret a Wind Rose Report (PDF guide)