Measuring distance between multiple destinations and one starting point at once

[BrandonBastiaans]

Hi all,

So I want to measure the distance between the center point of the blue polygon and all the other points (image 1) using the road network (image 2). Is there a way to do this without having to click on every point seperately? 

In other words: can I make a field in the attribute table which measures the proximity of all the points to the center point of the blue polygon using routes?

Images:

Image 1.

Image 2.

[XanderBakker]

I think this is something that you would normally do using a Python script (or perhaps in ModelBuilder?). You will have to loop through the points and update the locations, solve it, read the result and write it to the layer in the attribute where you want to store the distance.

Some more information can be found here: Python: Automating Network Analysis Workflows Video | Esri 

[MarkShymanski]

If I understand the question you want to determine the distance from one source point to a distant point (and then repeat this for many distant points but always the same source point). 

If you have access to Network Analyst you could use "New Closest Facility" (NCF) to calculate these distances along your road network.  NA will allow you to create a feature class with all these different pathways and their attribution. 

One method you could use is to use the distant points and multiple instances of the source point to populate a NCF tool and then calculate the distances from there.  You would need to add a UID field to your distant point feature class and then add a copy of the original source point the same number of times in another feature class (so if the distant point FC has 100 points, there should be a source point with 100 instances of the source point).  If you identify each of those 100 source points with the same UID as in the distant point FC you will be able to match them up in the net step. Then load each of these two FCs into your New Closest Facility tool and this should allow you to calculate all the distances that you need.  I don't have the tool in front of me otherwise I could give you a little more specific instruction on how to do this.

HTH,

Mark