HOW TO

Use ModelBuilder to create trade areas clipped by polygon boundaries

Last Published: April 26, 2020

Summary

Trade areas define a market region to help in understanding the existing or potential customer base of that area. Trade areas are often created from point locations by creating a polygon of the surrounding area based on a distance. Sometimes these distance-based polygons also need to be clipped to the boundary of a standard geography to more closely define a needed market area. A model consisting of several tools can be used to create these types of trade areas in a single workflow. Instead of using an iterator within the model to loop through each point of interest to create the trade areas, a more streamlined alternative can be used, especially if the process involves many polygons and a single output is needed.

The instructions provided describe how to clip trade areas by polygon boundaries using ModelBuilder. The Inputs needed to complete this workflow are:

  • the point feature class that defines locations, and
  • the polygon feature class that defines the areas to clip the boundaries of the trade areas (for example, a standard geography, such as Counties.)

Procedure

Note: 
The Static Rings tool requires the Business Analyst for Desktop extension.
  1. In ArcMap, click the Geoprocessing menu and open ModelBuilder.
  2. Create a model containing the following tools by dragging the tools from the Catalog window to the Model window.
    1. The Static Rings tool: Toolboxes > System Toolboxes > Business Analyst Tools > Trade Areas > Static Rings
    2. The Union tool: Toolboxes > System Toolboxes > Analysis Tools > Overlay > Union
    3. The Make Feature Layer tool: Toolboxes > System Toolboxes > Data Management Tools > Layers and Table Views > Make Feature Layer
    4. The Select Layer By Location tool: Toolboxes > System Toolboxes > Data Management Tools > Layers and Table Views > Select Layer By Location
    5. The Feature Class To Feature Class tool: Toolboxes > System Toolboxes > Conversion Tools > To Geodatabase > Feature Class to Feature Class

    An image of the ModelBuilder window.
  3. Connect the tools.
    1. Click the Connect Image of Connect button button.
    2. Connect the output from the Static Rings tool to the Union tool, and select Input Features as the parameter.
    3. Connect the output from the Union tool to the Make Feature Layer tool, and select Input Features as the parameter.
    4. Connect the output from the Make Feature Layer tool to the Select Layer By Location tool, and select Input Feature Layer as the parameter.
    5. Connect the output from the Select Layer By Location tool to the Feature Class to Feature Class tool, and select Input Features as the parameter.
    [O-Image]
  4. Set the input of the following tools by double-clicking each tool in the model.
    1. Static Rings
      1. Select the point feature class from the Store Layer drop-down list as the input of locations to create trade areas around.
      2. Specify the Store ID Field.
      3. Set the Radii value.
      4. Define inputs for any Optional parameters as desired.
      5. Click OK.
    2. Union
      1. The output layer from the Static Rings tool has been added as the Input Features.
      2. Add the polygon feature class that is needed to clip the trade area boundaries to Input Features as well.
      3. Define inputs for any Optional parameters as desired.
      4. Click OK.
    3. Make Feature Layer
      1. The output layer from the Union tool has been added as the Input Features.
      2. Define inputs for any Optional parameters as desired.
      3. Click OK.
    4. Select Layer By Location
      1. The output layer from the Make Feature Layer tool has been added as the the Input Feature Layer.
      2. Select INTERSECT from the Relationship drop-down list if needed.
      3. For Selecting Features, input the same point feature class that was used for the Store Layer parameter in the Static Rings tool.
      4. Click OK.
    5. Feature Class to Feature Class
      1. Double-click the Feature Class To Feature Class model.
      2. Select the output from the Select Layer By Location tool as Input Features.
      3. Specify the Output Location and Output Feature Class.
      4. Define inputs for any Optional parameters as desired.
      5. Click OK.
      User-added image
  5. Validate the model by clicking the Validate Entire Model button. Icon of Validate Entire Model button.
  6. Save the model.
  7. Run the model. Icon of Run button. A new layer is created in the output directory.
    Note: 
    The output layer is created and saved in the output directory. To insert the layer to the map, navigate to the folder containing the output layer and drag the layer to the map. Optionally, right-click the final output in the model, and select Add to Display to have the results added to the map automatically when the process completes. 

    A map view of the completed workflow.

Article ID: 000012826

Software:
  • ArcMap
  • ArcGIS Business Analyst Desktop

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