Find Route

E-mail this topic Print this topic

This task may not be available in the current map because its publisher may have disabled it.

This task provides the means to establish a route that travels among multiple stops. Optionally, you can choose to return to the original location at the end of the route. You can specify that the route should follow the order of the stops as they are listed or you can optimize the order of intervening stops between the start and end locations, based on the criterion you've chosen. The result of this task is a multipoint route that can be displayed on the map. The driving directions for the route are also made available as part of the result. The resulting route consists of a list of point locations. Each point location contains localized driving instructions at the point (an instruction consists of a turn to take [when appropriate], a distance to travel, and a road on which to travel). Note that the North America region selection applies to the United States and Canada only at this time. The relevant ArcGIS Online Service used for this task updates its list of nations covered by the Europe designation on a regular basis; see the current list of countries here.

There are four ways to supply stop locations:

1. Right-click a result and in the context menu that appears, choose Send To and the appropriate target name:
   
   
2. Drag a result to the list of stops.
3. Use the location tool to point at the display to find a location to add as a stop. If you want to change the location, you must select the stop and delete it; however, If you know you'll be adding several stop locations, you can hold down the Ctrl key as you click.
4. Type an address in the text box and then click the Add button to its right to add the address to the Stops list. Prior to the address' inclusion in the Stops list ArcGIS Explorer will make sure it's a valid address.

Check the Return to starting location check box to return to where the route originated after all other stops have been visited.

You can specify what units you want the distances to travel reported in, whether you want to optimize the sequence of stops based on the fastest or shortest route, and in which language you want the driving directions in. The topmost stop in the list will always be the starting point, whether you choose to optimize the route or not.

Once you've filled out the information, click the Get Route button to start the route-building process.

During this process, the Results pane displays an entry that reads Finding multi-stop directions for <n> stops (where n is the number of stops).

On successful completion of the task, you'll see an entry that says Route Details (<start location> to <end location>). Click the + sign to the left of the title to open the entry and reveal information about the driving distance and driving time, and to open another entry that contains the specific turns to take to reach your destination.

You can right-click any of the top-level items related to the directions to perform the following, additional operations:

	Add Folder	Adds a folder to the top of the Results window
	Fly to	Zooms to the spatial extent of the route. Note that animation is involved and this may affect performance. You may wish to increase Point-to-Point Speed in the Options dialog's Flight Characteristics panel to satisfy your requirements.
	Move to	Moves the display so that the route is at its center. No animation is involved; consequently this is the fastest way to move to a route.
	Flash	Blinks the symbol associated with the route
	Fly Along	Displays a dialog box that you can use to control an animation depicting a flight along the route's path
	Add View	Creates another view of the current result. The view appears as a child node of the result.
	Show/Hide Popup Window...	Toggles a popup window associated with the route. The window contains driving directions.
	Add a link...	Displays a file dialog to associate a file with the route. Once you've selected the file, it appears as a child node of the route result. Double-clicking the file name will open it.
	Export Result...	Saves the route to a result file (.nmf)
	Remove	Removes the route result
	Rename	Selects the route result's name so you can rename it
	Properties...	Displays a dialog box to set properties of the result.
	Printable Directions...	Displays turn-by-turn direction in a browser window whose contents you can send to a printer or copy to another application

If you want to move or zoom to any turn location along the route, right-click the turn in the Route Details list and choose one of the context menu commands.