Calculating Distances Between Different Layers

[JustinShelton]

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'll go ahead and explain my situation. I have two feature classes, both are polygons. One layer is blockgroups for Mobile County, Alabama, the other is a layer for hospitals throughout the county. I want to measure the distance from each block group to each hospital, such that it creates new fields in the attribute table for the distance to each hospital. I want an output that results in each block group having new fields for their distances to each hospital in Miles. Is there anyway to do this other than manually measuring???

[ChrisSnyder]

Take a look at the Near tool: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?id=1352&pid=1347&topicname=Near_(Analysis)

You must have an ArcInfo license to run it however...

[JustinShelton]

Thanks for the reply, but the "Near" process only gives distances in values of -1 or 0. I need something that returns a value of distance in miles.

[ChrisSnyder]

Is your data in a geographic projection? If so, you may need to project it into something like stateplane or UTM...

[JustinShelton]

The data is in state plane (feet). However, it still gives me figures of -1 and 0, an all or nothing sort of thing. I need actual distances in feet.

[BBicking1]

The data is in state plane (feet). However, it still gives me figures of -1 and 0, an all or nothing sort of thing. I need actual distances in feet.

Justin,

there is currently no tool that returns actual distance measures.

Use http://ideas.arcgis.com/ to request that the Near tool be enhanced with this option. I confirmed it's technically possible.

Barbara Bicking
ESRI - Geoprocessing Team