Distance to specific area

Ward van Laatum

Hi hi,

Is it possible to calculate the distance (travel distance) between two areas? I feel that it should work with the combo overlay and the distance overlay. But not sure how.

Hansje

Hello ward,

Thank you for your post.

In order to help you find the answer I would like to ask you if you can share a bit more information about your use case.

F.E. are you looking for the shortest travel distance for the two areas or the shortest distance between two areas? And do you have a specific point within the area you travel from or is it from border to border for the area? (just to mention some specifics I would like to know in order to help you with the best possible answer)

We do have a travel distance overlay, I'm not sure if this will provide you with the information you are looking for already? https://previewsupport.tygron.com/wiki/TravelDistanceOverlay

I look forward to your reply with additional info.

Ward van Laatum

Hello Hansje,

Ah, yes, ok. In my case I would like to know the distance from a new neighborhood (which has yet to be developed) to the nearest park. I loaded the new district and made an area for it. The nearest park is also loaded as an area. Now the question, can I ask Tygron how far the park is from the new district (taking the shortest route possible). And I mean the travel distance (so by following the roads). I understand that the question is complicated because it concerns an area and not a point. The shortest route between two points is perhaps more straightforward and is sufficient for me too. I think it is possible when you combine the distance travel overaly with the combo overlay. I think there is a creative solution possible. I think ...

RudolfNL

Hey Ward,

The travel distance overlay is a new functionality which has not yet been refined based on live use-cases. This means it's still a bit simple, but also that I'm very happy that you're looking at using it. The combo overlay can indeed expand the amount of information you get from it.

If you are looking for distance between a neighborhood and a nearest park as you describe in your most recent post, I would suggest the following as a jumping-off point:

• Mark your new neighborhood with an Area with a specific attribute, so that the travel distance overlay can connect to it
• Configure the travel distance overlay so that it generates routes to where you can get. Set the distance to 100m.
• Add another travel distance overlay, configured the same but set for a distance of 200m.
• Repeat for 300m, 400m, 500m.
• Use combo overlays to retrieve the results of the travel distance overlays, and output what the lowest value found is (i.e, if you're checking the 200m overlay and 100m overlay together, if there is no value it's infinitely far. If the 200m overlay has a value but the 100m overlay does not, the distance is more than 100m. If the 100m overlay has a value, the distance is at most around 100m). The result you should get in one combo overlay is a map in which, for every path in 500m range of the neighborhood, the path indicates whether its in 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500m distance.
• Mark the park you wish to know the distance to with an attribute. You can add an attribute to the construction which is the park, or to the function the park has, or even draw an additional Area with such an attribute.
• Add an average overlay which highlights the park(s) you wish to know the distance to.
• Finally, add a combo overlay which, if the average overlay indicates there's a park there, displays the value of the combo overlay which combines all the travel distances. If there is no park, you can output a very high number (representing infinite distance).
• The lowest value found on the final combo overlay indicates the minimum distance between the neighborhood and the park.

It's a bit of a recipe written out like this, I admit. But this may serve as a jumping-off point from where it can be refined into a more accurate or more compact form.

Does this provide the handle you need for your use-case?

Ward van Laatum

Hey Rudolf,

Thank you. But if I understand you correctly your sollution does not give me an exact answer. It is an itterative way of approximating the distance, right?

RudolfNL

Hi Ward,

to ensure that this thread contains the answer to the question posed I'll write what I've also explained during our live support session.

Yes, the method described here is more or less an itterative method of approximating the distance. However, where i've explained here how to create such a check/calculation using purely built-in tools, we have also discussed that if you use a script which communicates via the API to automatically adjust the seeking distance (and then check whether your target is in the resulting range), then that script can find the exact distance at which the target is found relative to your traveling origin.