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Migration from legacy distance functions to distortion-free distance functions

Available with Spatial Analyst license.

Significant improvements have been made to distance analysis in ArcGIS Pro 2.5, and new distance raster functions that have enhanced capabilities were made available. In addition, the results of the operations are now calculated with greater precision and accuracy.

Since there are improved raster functions available, the Distance (Legacy) raster functions are deprecated and will be removed in a future release. The banner for each of these functions indicates that it is being deprecated. This topic identifies for each of these functions the function that replaces it.

Function organization and mapping

The new functions are as follows:

Function

Description

Distance Accumulation

Calculates accumulated distance for each cell to sources, allowing for straight-line distance, cost distance, and true surface distance, as well as vertical and horizontal cost factors.

Distance Allocation

Calculates distance allocation for each cell to the provided sources based on straight-line distance, cost distance, and true surface distance, as well as vertical and horizontal cost factors.

Least Cost Corridor

Calculates the sum of two accumulative cost distance rasters with the option to apply a threshold based on percentage or accumulative cost.

Optimal Path As Raster

Calculates the optimal path from destinations to sources.

The following table shows the mapping between the Legacy Distance raster functions and the replacement functions that offer enhanced functionality and performance:

Legacy distance functions

New distortion-free distance functions

Corridor

Least Cost Corridor

Cost Allocation

Distance Allocation

Cost Back Link

Distance Accumulation with the Out back direction raster parameter specified

Cost Distance

Distance Accumulation

Cost Path

Optimal Path As Raster

Euclidean Allocation

Distance Allocation

Euclidean Back Direction

Distance Accumulation with the Out back direction raster parameter specified

Euclidean Direction

Distance Accumulation with the Out source direction raster parameter specified

Euclidean Distance

Distance Accumulation

Least Cost Path

Distance Accumulation and Optimal Path As Raster

Path Distance

Distance Accumulation

Path Distance Allocation

Distance Allocation

Path Distance Back Link

Distance Accumulation with the Out back direction raster parameter specified