The Explorer tab provides another method for viewing your analyses and displaying layers on the map. To view an analysis that has already been created, click “Analysis” and select your desired analysis from the drop-down list. If your analysis includes more than one market area, you can toggle between the market area options in the “Buffer” drop-down.

Filters in the Explorer tool can be used to specify which markets in your analysis meet your needs based on criteria you apply.

Once an analysis has been selected, click the “+” button and then open the drop-down list to view all available criteria. You can filter by any metric available in your VisionLTC portal. Select which criteria you would like to apply, the condition to measure it by, and input a value. Once you have your rule created, click “Apply Filter.”

There is no limit to the number of filters you can apply. You can apply a single rule or click the “Add Group” button next to the “+” to apply a set of rules. To delete a rule or group, click “x” button in the metric dropdown and then click “Apply Filter” again to refresh the map.

The legend in the top left corner of the map tells you the quintile range of values for the Current Display Metric based on the markets that are currently displaying on the map. This means that when you apply a filter(s) and a market disappears, then the legend will automatically update its quintiles based on the markets remaining.

You can change what metric is used as the legend by changing the Current Display Metric under the “Site Details” tab. Open the “Measure” menu, select any metric from the list to display, and then the legend will automatically update. Please note that you can either scroll through the available metric options or search for them by keyword, as depicted in the screenshot below.

Pro Tip: The legend can be a useful tool for determining filter thresholds. Choose your desired metric from the dropdown list under Current Display Metric on the Markers tab and then review the legend’s ranges to get a sense of the market area. Apply some filters, refresh your filters, and repeat as necessary.

NOTE: We use the Natural Breaks (Jenks-Fisher) method for calculating these quintile breaks.

When applying a filter, you can combine rules using an “And” function or an “Or” function. To display markets that meet or exceed all the selected thresholds use the “And” function. Use the “Or” function if you want to display markets that meet or exceed at least one of the selected thresholds. When using at least three (3) rules, you can use both the “And” function and the “Or” function, as is detailed in our example below.

Here we apply two groups of rules using the “Or” function between Rule Group 1 and Rule Group 2. We also use the “And” function for Group 2, Rule 1 and Group 2, Rule 2. In this instance, our filter is saying to display markets that meet the following criteria:

OR

As long as the market meets Group 1 OR Group 2, then it will display on the map.

Below, you can see the same rules applied using the “And” function. In this instance, our filter is saying display markets that meet both Rule Group 1 AND Rule Group 2.

Pro Tip: You can reference the same metric more than once and limit your results to markets that fit within a fixed range of values for any metric. For example, create a range based on the metric 75+ Population CY and to display markets with a 75+ Population between 10,000 seniors and 500,000 seniors by creating two rules and using the “And” function.

Once you have created a filter, you can save it to your account for future use. To save a filter, click on the “Save Filter” button in the upper right-hand corner of the “Filter Data” box. Enter a name for the filter and click Save Filter.

You can now use this filter at any time by opening the “Select Saved Filter” drop-down and selecting the saved filter from the list.

If you would like to change the default display metric that acts as a legend for the market areas in your analyses, you will need to update your Account Settings. Click your account name in the left menu to open your account settings. In the “Default Configuration” menu under “User Detail”, click into the drop-down labeled “Measure” and choose your desired default metric. Click “Update Details” to save your changes.