Network maps of patent classes have been widely used to analyze the coherence and diversification of technology or knowledge positions of inventors, firms, industries, regions, and so on. To create such networks, a measure is required to associate different classes of patents in the patent database and often indicates knowledge proximity (or distance). Prior studies have used a variety of knowledge proximity measures based on different perspectives and association rules. It is unclear how to consistently assess and compare them, and which ones are superior for constructing a generally useful total patent class network. Such uncertainty has limited the generality and applications of the previously reported maps. Herein, we use a statistical method to identify the superior proximity measure from a comprehensive set of typical measures, by evaluating and comparing their explanatory powers on the historical expansions of the patent portfolios of individual inventors and organizations across different patent classes. Based on the complete United States granted patent database from 1976 to 2017, our analysis identifies a reference-based Jaccard index as the statistically superior measure, for explaining the historical diversifications and predicting future movement directions of both individual inventors and organizations across technology domains.