Helicopter shortest path.

AndrewBivins

We have approximately 180 points we need to view from the air with a helicopter.  The points cover about 200,000 acres.  Could anyone help me with the process of creating a line file that attaches the points in the shortest distance possible?  I would like to create a model for this so when future projects come up we can just drop the new point data into the model and run it again.

Thanks,

Andrew

DanPatterson_Retired

XY Table To Point—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop to get the data in.

The rest really depends on the pattern of your locations.  The first thought that comes to mind is that you have a number of areas that you want to visit and you want to minimize the flying time between them.  The locations need not be in a linear pattern but can be spread out in all directions.  You might have a preferred start point, but the visitation order isn't important.  This type of approach can be dealt with using a 'minimum spanning tree' (MST) which is basically showing you the shorted path or paths needed to visit all the sites.  Do note that spanning trees can retrace their steps since retracing steps may actually be shorter than a typical network travelling salesman problem.

There are tools to do both, I presume that you have already looked at the Network Analyst as a possible solution, but you may not be familiar with MST - ish implementations How the Cost Connectivity tool works—Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

of course there are other ways to approach the question that may be better tuned to you on-ground situation.