What is the difference between OD cost matrix and closest facility?

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06-06-2018 11:42 AM
Luiz_ClaudioPires_Pereira_Juni
New Contributor II
I performed the Esri exercises of the mentioned tools and noticed similarity in the results obtained when I use the same information of the OD Matrix in the Closest Facility
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RachelApplebaum
Esri Contributor

Hi Luiz,

The Closest Facility and OD Cost Matrix are very similar solvers that often do very similar things, but there are some nuances to each which make them better for certain situations. 

The Origin Destination Cost Matrix (ODCM) only solves in one direction, from the origins to the destinations. The Closest Facility (CF) solver can solve from facility to incident or from incident to facility.

CF can return output shapes as the true shape of the route, with or without measure values, straight lines or no output shape at all and it can also return directions for each route. The ODCM can only return either straight lines or no shape at all and it will not return any directions. Because the ODCM does not return complicated geometry or directions, it finishes more quickly than the CF and is meant as a faster alternative to CF when dealing with large solves.

There are some other differences, both on the front end and back end, but those are the main ones. If you're interested in learning more about the algorithms for each analysis, check out Algorithms used by the ArcGIS Network Analyst extension—Help | ArcGIS Desktop .

Hope that helps!

-Rachel

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5 Replies
Luiz_ClaudioPires_Pereira_Juni
New Contributor II

Thanks!

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

No problem Luiz

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RachelApplebaum
Esri Contributor

Hi Luiz,

The Closest Facility and OD Cost Matrix are very similar solvers that often do very similar things, but there are some nuances to each which make them better for certain situations. 

The Origin Destination Cost Matrix (ODCM) only solves in one direction, from the origins to the destinations. The Closest Facility (CF) solver can solve from facility to incident or from incident to facility.

CF can return output shapes as the true shape of the route, with or without measure values, straight lines or no output shape at all and it can also return directions for each route. The ODCM can only return either straight lines or no shape at all and it will not return any directions. Because the ODCM does not return complicated geometry or directions, it finishes more quickly than the CF and is meant as a faster alternative to CF when dealing with large solves.

There are some other differences, both on the front end and back end, but those are the main ones. If you're interested in learning more about the algorithms for each analysis, check out Algorithms used by the ArcGIS Network Analyst extension—Help | ArcGIS Desktop .

Hope that helps!

-Rachel

Luiz_ClaudioPires_Pereira_Juni
New Contributor II

Thanks!

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