Available with Business Analyst license.
Overview
Building a territory network index allows users to significantly improve the performance of drive-time and drive-distance calculations. A territory network index (TNI) stores pre-calculated values of network cost attributes, between pairs of key points on a street network.
Best practices
Typically the alignment layer feature class is used for the role of a key points layer. It is recommended that only the focused area of the territory solution be considered when building a TNI, and to avoid building large, nationwide indexes. Within the focused area, a selection of the alignment layer should be exported and used as key points. For example, if a territory solution is built for Los Angeles County ZIP Codes, then the ZIP Code boundaries for Los Angeles County should first be exported then used as a key points layer.
- Click Territory Design > Common Tools > Territory Network Index... from the Territory Design toolbar. The screenshot below shows the first panel of the Territory Network Index dialog box.
- Choose the Build new Territory Network Index option from the Network Index wizard. Click Next.
- The following options are available to define your network index:
- Street Network: - pre-loaded from the Business Analyst preferences. You may browse to your desired network from here.
- Distance Type: - pre-loaded from the Business Analyst preferences. Options include: TravelTime and TravelDistance.
- Key Points Layer: - Typically, an alignment layer feature class is used.
- Name your Territory Network Index: - The index name must be unique. By default, the index name is constructed from the Street Network and Impedance Attribute parameters.
All indexes, are stored in the folder: C:\My Output Data\Projects\Default Project\Custom Territory Network Indexes.
Click Next.
- A summary of your settings are shown: To make changes you can Click the Back button, otherwise Click Finish.
Manage an existing territory network index
You can choose any of your existing network Indexes to perform a variety of actions.
- Click Territory Design > Common Tools > Territory Network Index... from the Territory Design toolbar.
- Choose the Manage Territory Network Indexes option from the Territory Network Index wizard. Click Next.
- Select one or more territory network indexes. The following actions can be performed:
- View information - view details of selected territory network index.
- Update - steps you through the wizard selections of a previously created territory network index and permits changes.
- Rename - allows you to rename the chosen territory network index.
- Delete Selected - removes and permanently deletes all chosen territory network indexes from your My Output Data folder.
Territory network index in detail
A territory network index works much faster when creating territories because the algorithm does not make calls to the Network Analyst extension API, but rather, uses a pre-calculated network index instead. Learn more about territory network indexes by reading this technical brief.