I'm wondering if Arc Pro or Arc Map have a tool which allows you to create a line using an elevation surface to automatically choose a constant grade path. I've found the spatial analysis distance tools, but it is not clear that any of those tools would do this, or which one is appropriate. It seems those tools are for creating rasters for path selection.
With the tool I'm looking for, I'm thinking you'd click your starting point, then the next vertex creation would create a line at constant grade, making the line weave in and out of draws and ridges. It seems like a no brainer that arc would have a tool for this, but I can't find it. Obviously, this would be for road design. It would be pretty handy now that lidar is prevalent.
The trouble with grade or anything involving slope is that the methods of determine slope use a 3x3 moving window in their calculations. The software has no concept of moving across a natural slope at an angle to maintain a constant grade of traversal.