Cost Distance - Costs from Source
Open Table of Contents ToolBox Implementation
Calculates for each cell of the output raster the least cost to reach one of the sources of the input point feature class. The cost is calculated as distance from the cell to the source multiplied by the weight of the source. The smaller the weight value of a source is, the greater the influence of the source is.

The performance of the function depends very much on the difference between the smallest and largest weights. The larger this difference is, the slower the function will be.

Inputs:

  • A point feature class (Sources).
  • The cell size of the output raster.
  • Weight field. The values of this field will be used to define the weight of the sources. Any numeric field (integer or double) can be used as a weight field.
  • Cutoff cost - the value of the cells with larger than this cost (distance x weight) to reach will be set to NODATA

Outputs:

  • A floating point raster. Each cell will have as a value the minimum cost to be reached from one of the sources.

Examples:
 

Points (Sources) labeled with their weights.

 

Notes:

  • Initially the name of the output raster defines the raster format
    • no extension specified - ESRI binary GRID
    • .img extension (for example raster1.img) - ERDAS IMAGINE image.
    • .tif extension (for example raster1.tif - Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) image.
  • The initial output raster format can be changed by selecting the desired output in the dialog.
  • Currently only file based rasters are supported. Rasters cannot be stored in a GeoDatabase. After you get the desired result, you can export the raster to a GeoDatabase using the standard ArcGIS tools.
  • The input feature class must be in a projected coordinate system.

ToolBox implementation

Command line syntax

ETS_GPCostDistanceSource <Input Points>  <Out Raster> <Weight Field> < Cell Size> {Cut Off Cost}

Parameters

Expression Explanation
<Input Points> A Point layer feature class
<Out Raster> A String - the full name of the output raster (A raster with the same full name should not exist). The output raster type depends on the extension of the output file(see Notes above)
<Weight Field> A String representing the name of the field in the input point feature class that are going to be used as weights.
<Cell Size> A Double representing the cell size of the output raster.
{Cut Off Cost} A Double representing the cut off cost - the value of the cells with larger than this cost (distance x weight) to reach will be set to NODATA

Scripting syntax

ETS_GPCostDistanceSource (Input Points, Out Raster, Weight Field, Cell Size, Cut Off Cost)

See the explanations above:
<> - required parameter
{} - optional parameter

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Copyright: Ianko Tchoukanski