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Find nearby features

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Using the Find nearby tool, you can find locations that are near other locations on your map. For example, you may want to find distribution centers that are near a warehouse.

The Find nearby tool allows you to select features on the map and find features that are within a specified distance or drive time of the selection. When you make a selection, interactive behaviors configured on the specified selection layer are automatically triggered. For example, suppose the report author configured an interactive behavior on a layer showing retailer locations to update a list of retailers organized by profit and revenue. When you select a group of retailer locations on the map, the list automatically updates to reflect your selection.

Note:

Only automatic on-selection interactive behaviors that are enabled will be triggered. For more information, see Trigger interactive behaviors.

Configured interactive behaviors are also triggered based on locations found. For example, suppose you want to find customers within a certain drive time of the selected retailer locations. If the report author configured an interactive behavior on the customer layer to update a list of customer addresses, this behavior will be triggered when customers within the specified drive time are found and selected on the map.

The Find nearby tool is only available for layers created from IBM Cognos data and for feature service layers.

Select features

  1. From the Tools menu, click Analyze features.
    Note:

    This tool is only available if it was enabled by the report author.

  2. From the drop-down menu, choose the layer containing the features for which you want to view detailed information.
  3. Do any of the following to make selections:
    • From the Select drop-down menu, click the Rectangle selection tool and drag a rectangle on the map to select the features you want.
    • From the Select drop-down menu, click the Free-hand selection tool and drag a freehand shape on the map to select the features you want.
    • To select a single feature, click the feature on the map while either of the selection tools is enabled.

    Interactive behaviors configured on the specified selection layer will be automatically triggered when you make a selection.

    Note:

    Only automatic on-selection interactive behaviors that are enabled will be triggered. For more information, see Trigger interactive behaviors.

    Note:
    • For point features, only features that are completely within the selection area are included in the selection.
    • If your map has point features that have been clustered, you will not be able to select the clustered features on the map using Analyze features. You can turn off clustering to select the individual point features or select clustered point features using the Trigger interactions tool.
  4. Continue to draw shapes or click individual features to select more features as needed. To pan the map while making selections, use the Pan tool.
  5. To clear all selections or remove part of your selection, do one of the following:
    • From the Clear drop-down menu, click the Clear selection tool to clear all selections in the layer.
    • From the Clear drop-down menu, click the Remove from selection tool and drag a rectangle on the map around the features you want to remove from the selection.

Find nearby features

  1. After making a selection, choose Find nearby from the Use selection for drop-down menu.
  2. From the What do you want to find? drop-down menu, choose the layer containing the locations you want to find.
  3. Choose Ring to search within a specified distance around the selection, or choose Drive time to search within a specified drive time of the selection.
  4. If you chose Ring, specify a radius in either miles or kilometers. If you chose Drive time, specify the maximum drive time from the selection in minutes or hours.
    Note:

    The Drive time option is only available when the specified selection layer is a point layer.

  5. Click Find.

    Interactive behaviors configured on the specified Find nearby layer are triggered based on the features found.

    Note:

    Only automatic on-selection interactive behaviors that are enabled will be triggered. For more information, see Trigger interactive behaviors.

    If you chose Ring, Esri Maps for IBM Cognos generates a new temporary layer containing the circles that define the search radius. The features within that radius are selected on the specified layer.

    If you chose Drive time, Esri Maps for IBM Cognos generates a new temporary layer containing the shapes that define the search area. The features within those polygons are selected on the specified layer.

    The search area for each Find nearby action is generated as a temporary layer in the Contents pane, using the name of the original layer with a prefix indicating the name of the related action, for example, Find nearby buffer - LayerName. You can use these layers as reference for future select actions.

    Note:

    These layers are temporary and are not saved with the map.