Did navigation mesh and pathfinding exist in Arcgis ?

Question

Hi everyone,

I am a Universtiy student who is trying to find a way too see as a line the shortest distance between two points. I want arcgis to get around obstacle like lake, mountain (defined as polygon). 
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Example:

I got 3 shapefile

1. The obstacles are defined has polygon and are on the shapefile ''Obstacles''
2. The walkable area are on another shapefile  named ''Walkable_Area''
3. The 2 point (Origin,Destination) are on the last shapefile called ''OD_Points''

Soo i have 2 points one South-west and another Nord-east. I also have a region too navigate and obstacle to get around. The result wanted is the shortest distance, getting around obstacles, between Origin and destination and shown as a line. 
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I know that video game use that kind of function really often it's called  A star algorithm. I also know that the A star algorithm is finding is't way in a point to point graph. Soo for video game they has develop the principe of Navigation Mesh. Did that kind of Algorithm/Function exist in Arcgis ?

Cedric P.

Jade_Freeman · Answer

Hi everyone,

I am a Universtiy student who is trying to find a way too see as a line the shortest distance between two points. I want arcgis to get around obstacle like lake, mountain (defined as polygon). 
[/HR]
Example:

I got 3 shapefile

1. The obstacles are defined has polygon and are on the shapefile ''Obstacles''
2. The walkable area are on another shapefile  named ''Walkable_Area''
3. The 2 point (Origin,Destination) are on the last shapefile called ''OD_Points''

Soo i have 2 points one South-west and another Nord-east. I also have a region too navigate and obstacle to get around. The result wanted is the shortest distance, getting around obstacles, between Origin and destination and shown as a line. 
[/HR]

I know that video game use that kind of function really often it's called  A star algorithm. I also know that the A star algorithm is finding is't way in a point to point graph. Soo for video game they has develop the principe of Navigation Mesh. Did that kind of Algorithm/Function exist in Arcgis ?

Cedric P.

Did you ever find a solution?  We are trying to do something similar in a campus environment where the goal is to figure out how to navigate buildings while avoiding walls and such.