XY data with date and time references for vertexes - need to make a line

[DionaAustill]

I have some data as follows:

INDEX RCR UTC DATE UTC TIME LOCAL DATE LOCAL TIME MS VALID LATITUDE N/S LONGITUDE E/W HEIGHT SPEED Distance
1 T 9/27/2013 15:24:34 9/27/2013 8:24:34 0 SPS 46.299584 N -105.973519 W 832 m 0.059 km/h 0.00 m
2 T 9/27/2013 15:25:34 9/27/2013 8:25:34 0 SPS 46.299511 N -105.973503 W 835 m 0.003 km/h 0.00 m
3 T 9/27/2013 15:26:34 9/27/2013 8:26:34 0 DGPS 46.299497 N -105.973463 W 838 m 0.027 km/h 8.27 m

What they would like is a line with graduated colors so they can tell the route the cow took in their travels. They are putting a GPS unit on cows on Tuesday and removing them Friday so each file has about 1713 lines of data. I would like to make a line with points and somehow number the points or make a graduated line that turns from say red to blue so they can tell where they started and ended and how long they stayed at certain points. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Diona

[DionaAustill]

I will base it on time. I am trying to figure out how to automate with a macro or something, how to sort out the times that have 00 or 30 minutes. The field is hour:minutes:seconds.  I did it manually but that takes a while. I come up with 74 lines that I would want to do a graduated line with. I wish I had time to spend on this but keep getting interrupted so thanks for all your help!

Diona

[CPoynter]

Have a look at the datetime function/module within python. You might be able to do a calculation using it.

Or have a look at the 'Calculate End Time' tool within ArcGIS.

Take note that date and time will need to be separate fields for shapefiles but can be one field in a GDB.

[DionaAustill]

To give an update on this. I found an ESRI trainer that helped me step through this and build a model I use as a tool. The result is a line but you can go to symbology and make the line three colors, one for each day. That way you can see where the animal spent his time on each day. I use it both ways. I also went to an Esri class in Denver on Analyzing which was very good. We went over models and animation. Thanks for all your suggestions!