topic Re: Stairs and riser count in directions in ArcGIS Network Analyst Questions

Stairs and riser count in directions

Shelby_Kline — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 12:58:04 GMT

Has anyone found a good way to incorporate riser count into their directions for taking the stairs?

I tried two approaches, but I'm not a fan of either.

1. Added stairs to our Landmarks feature class, where field DESCRIPTION is the label field and contains riser count. It feels redundant to instruct the user to both take the stairs and pass by X number of risers.

2. Created a separate Stairs feature class & feature service, labeled by riser count. Directions exclude riser count but look cleaner without the "Pass by" steps. However, generated routes cover up the point symbol and its label. I haven't tried offsetting the point/label yet.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Re: Stairs and riser count in directions

MaxZeng — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:09:51 GMT

Hey Shelby,

Have you tried using custom directions to enhance the directions text? How you go about implementing the custom directions to enhance the stairs instruction to include the risers count will be based on your data model. You can develop a temporary directions customizer and you should be able to debug into the code and see what information you have access to at the stairs to be able to see whether you can add that additional information.

Some additional information about custom directions from past presentation:

Developer summit talk from 2024: https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_ezhomum8

Slides and code samples from 2024: https://esriurl.com/ds2024customization

Developer summit talk from 2025: https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_chjl0tm8

Slides and code samples from 2025: https://arcg.is/0m8nii0

If these don't work out, and if you are able to share a sample of your network dataset, I can help to take a look and do some prototype as well. You can DM me on Esri Community about your data if this is the case.

Thanks,

Max

Re: Stairs and riser count in directions

Shelby_Kline — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:32:37 GMT

Hi Max,

Thanks for your reply! I didn't know about custom directions. I see they are available in ArcGIS Pro 3.4 through 3.6. We are currently on Enterprise 11.1 but upgrading to 11.5 next week (!!!) so hopefully I can develop and test a temporary directions customizer in the near future.