Network Analyst

[KatyW]

Let me set the scene...

I work in telecommunications and I've been tasked with making some maps.  I'm new in the field and in this job so I'm still navigating some new concepts.  I have two maps attached that might be good reference as to what I am trying to accomplish.  With conduit, there are four different classes of conduit and it is identified by it's diameter (1 inch, 2 inch...etc)  When I go to represent this in my MXD as unique values, the lines are stacked.  I tried to remedy this by offsetting the lines, however that screws with the location.  I talked to this guy at another company to see how he had made maps like this and he wouldn't reveal his secret to doing this.  He told me that I should look into using Network Analyst and I've been watching some videos and trying to see how this could help me but I'm not sure...

Any ideas?  There are other fields in the feature classes that I'm working with and I wonder if using some of that information might be the key.  I really just need to be able to display my lines with no overlap and some space between them like in the attached examples.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

[JoeBorgione]

Not sure why he'd recommend NA; he must be treating it as a routing problem.  You might take a look at representations:  http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/pdf/Representations_Tutorial.pdf

[KatyW]

If this was a routing problem, how could I use network analyst to solve that?

[JoeBorgione]

Beats me; since I don't use this forum to solicit business for myself, it's hard saying....  

[DanPatterson_Retired]

A quick tour of geometric networks—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop if  this is utility related

[ChrisDonohue__GISP]

I'll second Joe's recommendation - Representations are probably the way to go.  Network Analyst won't help you here - this does not appear to be a Network Analyst solution and Network Analyst does not have much in the way of display capabilities.

Representations

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

There are some caveats on Representations, though.  Representations take a while to figure out, so plan to spend some time learning about them.  They are not something learned in a few minutes.  Some of their setup is non-intuitive, and they don't always behave as expected when creating and editing.  They can be very useful, but you will need to dig into them a bit before you can get rolling.

As a result, Representations are great if you plan on re-using them over and over for several maps, but usually not worth it for one-time maps that need to be done quickly.

Chris Donohue, GISP