Want to create OD Cost Matrix but with real routes as output lines...

Question

I'm helping a researcher with a network based analysis problem. The researcher has a set of Origin and Destination locations. These represent farms as the origins that truck out their animal waste (manure) to offsite destinations. Most origins have multiple destinations they truck to.

The analysis goal is to find all the routes between each Origin and all of its destinations, and represent those links as the actual route line, not a straight line.

OD Cost Matrix does the correct kind of linking, but it does not create a real route as an output.

Route Analysis can create real linked routes as an output, but it connects linked locations as linear routes only, not as a radial Origin and Destination set of routes.

Any help in bridging these analysis tasks and outputs would be greatly appreciated!

Melinda Morang · Answer

If I understand your question correctly, it sounds like each origin is assigned to specific destinations.  This blog post describes some best practices for this type of analysis, so maybe it will have what you need: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/network-analyst/transportation/paired-origins-and-destinations.  If that doesn't answer your question, let me know, and we can dig deeper.

DavidPike · Answer

I'd probably just run Closest facility for each Origin and set of Destinations How To: Create Routes from One Location to Multiple Locations or vice Versa in ArcGIS Pro

Or you might be able to set I field to only connect Destinations (Incidents) to specific Origins (Facilities).  I can't recall if that's the case however.

You might also simply be able to do the same with the basic Route Solver.

DavidMedeiros · Answer

I want the analysis approach of the first image (OD Cost Matrix, each Origin has many Destinations, radial networks) with the line visualizations from the second image (true along the network routes as line features). I know OD Cost Matrix calculates along the real route, but we also need to show those routes, not just the simplified lines.