topic Re: Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations in ArcGIS Network Analyst Questions

Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations

MatthewIrwin — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 02:33:26 GMT

Hi, so i have created within a polygon 20 sample points, now i have been asked to find the best path to start and finish at the same point location. so doing a loop and covering all points. any ideas?
cheers
Matt

Re: Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations

JoeBorgione — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 14:35:55 GMT

Hi, so i have created within a polygon 20 sample points, now i have been asked to find the best path to start and finish at the same point location. so doing a loop and covering all points. any ideas?
cheers
Matt

Let me make sure I have this straight: leave point A and visit points 1-20 once and then return to point A. If that's correct, you are modeling the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP).

Take a look here for starters: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//004700000053000000

and then on to here: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Route_analysis/004700000045000000/

That ought to answer you question.

Re: Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations

MatthewIrwin — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 20:26:57 GMT

Thanks for the reply. The thing is, there is no network to start with, its just 20 random points in a paddock (field) and im trying to find the most efficent path to visit them all and end up back at the same location.

Re: Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations

JoeBorgione — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 01:12:10 GMT

Hmmm.... Given you posted this to the network analyst forum, and what you describe is a classic network problem, naturally I assumed there was a network involved. My bad.

Re: Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations

MatthewIrwin — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 02:00:33 GMT

my bad really, i didnt really know where to post this. thought this might be a good start

Re: Find the best pathway between 20 sample locations

JaySandhu — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:58:54 GMT

You can make a network dataset based on a dense grid of lines (say 100 meter or less spacing) with the "Create Fishnet" GP tool. You can give the polygon paddock as the constraining feature class. Now that you have a "street" network, you can use the Route solver with the "Reorder stops to find Optimal Route" option and get the best way to visit these 20 locations.

Jay Sandhu