How Do I Get Zip Points to Show Up in Alteryx?

[Alteryx_KB]

If you can't find the ZIP code you are looking for, it is likely that it is a ZIP point, ZIP codes are assigned to military basis, college campuses and other large facilities. These ZIP Codes are not registered by default, to be added to Allocate they have to be registered. For this you will need to have Admin rights to your computer to do this. If you don't, you could try right clicking on the Allocate product and selecting Run as administrator. If this does not work, you will need your IT to register the file for you.

First, open the stand alone Allocate product (outside of Alteryx):

                                               

Choose the dataset you are using in the first window:

                     

Next, go to the Pick Geography tab and go to File > Manage Virtual Geographies…

                     

The below window will pop up, click on Register:

                              

Go to the Program Files (x86)AlteryxDataProductsPortfolio[your dataset]Data folder (or the folder for the dataset you are using):

                      

And select the ZIPs with Points VGF files, click Open:

                      

You will see that the Zip Codes w/Points is now loaded in the list, click OK:

                                

Allocate will say it needs to restart, click OK. Once open again, go to the Pick Geography tab and the Zip Codes w/Points is now selectable and will also be available in the Allocate tool within Alteryx.

                      

[LonnieY]

As a follow up to this post, let’s add ZIP Codes with Points by Sectional Centers to Allocate.  Sectional Center Facilities route mail between local post offices and other distribution centers. Like ZIP Codes with Points, ZIP Codes with Points by Sectional Centers are not registered by default but are included in the data install. The process is essentially the same as registering ZIP Codes with Points but different files are registered. 

Follow the steps above to register ZIP Codes with Points. When complete, click the Register button and one at a time select ALTERYX_US_15A_SC_ALIAS_WPOINTS_Q3_2016_16A.vgf and ALTERYX_US_15A_SC_RECORD_Q3_2016_16A.vgf, Open.

Sectional Centers w/Points and ZIP Codes w/Points by Sectional Center are now loaded in the list, click OK.

Allocate needs to restart, click OK. When relaunched, go to the Pick Geography tab to see an additional, selectable entry.This geography is also available in the Allocate tool within Alteryx. Sectional Centers w/Points is an organizational geography and not visible.

[JeradR]

Note that as of 11.8+, users that have only installed Flexera license keys on their machine may receive an error message when opening the standalone Allocate GUI to register the Point ZIPs: 

Upon opening Allocate GUI

Pick Geography tab

These errors can be ignored for the purpose of registering the VGFs. Please reach out to fulfillment@alteryx.com should you require a legacy license to use the standalone Allocate GUI for analysis (outside of Designer).

[Cstep35]

Can this be done with the us Census 2010 - Most Recent Vintage Data Set? I can't find any vgf files in any of my alteryx folders. Is it possible to include point zips with this data set?

[JeffVR]

Hello Cstep35!

Zips with points are not installed by default. They are included in the Business Insights and Location Insights installers for the US_Census_2010_SF1 dataset. To install them after installing data, you can extract them from the US_Census_2010_SF1_Data\Data.7z file within the data installer. They will be located in the data folder in the archive. Once extracted you can then follow the steps above.

Let us know if you have more questions.

[mbarone]

To the Product Managers - this takes a considerable amount of time (clicking through all the "ok" boxes, repeating for all three geo files, etc.).  It's been many years that we've had to go through this every release.  How do we get Product to recognize that this is a huge pain point for many of us, and I'm sure would be a relatively easy fix to add functionality to do this automatically with the install.  Maybe add an option with the install routine.

[JeffVR]

Hey @mbarone! We have elected to not install Zip Point virtual geography files with the standard geographies in our Allocate datasets because the methodology for Allocating (😁) data to point geometries is quite different under the hood than polygon geometries.

We are looking to improve the experience with third party data, and we recognize the overall installation experience is not ideal. In the meantime, I do understand that this must be frustrating to do every quarter; I think we can help with that. I'll reach out to you via direct message and we can discuss this and more!

[mbarone]

Thanks @JeffVR !