Passing field variable as distance with Drive Time Trade Areas using ArcPy with ArcGIS Pro

Question

I have a dataset of 600,000 records where I need to calculate a drive time that is different for each based on model that estimates the actual/variable drive time needed at that location. Within ArcGIS Pro (2.5) I can create a drive time trade area but it only allows input for 1 specific drive time point.

How can I change the python code so that it reads from the record/file the specific drive time that I need for it to calculate?

Here is the Business Analyst drive time code:

arcpy.ba.GenerateDriveTimeTradeArea("Heat_Map_Grids_Point", r"C:\Default.gdb\Heat_Map_Drive_Times", "Driving Time", [5], "MINUTES", "GRID_ID", "OVERLAP", "KEEP_OVERLAP", "TOWARD_STORES", None, "TIME_ZONE_AT_LOCATION", None, "STANDARD")

the [5] (the distance value parameter) is the variable I need to convert to a field value.

Is this even possible, and what would some example code look like?

I am thinking sending the field values to a list and looping through that list would do the trick...but not sure how to create that code.

Answer 1

1) I believe GenerateDriveTimeTradeArea uses credits, if so you should check how the pricing works b/c looping through 600000 records and calling that tool each time might have some minimal credit charge for each call. That might be different from sending a bunch of records at once.

2) Not sure how long 600000 separate calls to this tool would take ... I assume the processing time would be diff vs. a call to the tool with a bunch of locations.

3) Are there common values in the 600000 for the values you want to calc for? That is are there just a few values like 5, 10, 15, 20. If so can you just break data up into separate tables and call the tool once for each table.

4) Does the tool have a limit to the number of points that can be sent at one time?

5) To loop through feature class see the help for search cursor