<p>Introduction to ArcGIS Network Analyst</p><p>Prepared by Scott Hubley for Dr. Francisco Olivera CVEN 658: Civil Engineering Applications of GIS Department of Civil Engineering Texas A&M University December 4, 2006</p><p>Contents </p><p>• Brief Overview • Goals of the Exercise • Computer and Data Requirements • Procedure A. Creation of a Shapefile Based Network Dataset B. Route Solver and Directions</p><p>Brief Overview </p><p>The ArcGIS Network Analyst is a powerful extension that provides route finding capabilities and allows for analysis of any type of networks. It has been used in various business and engineering applications that include service area delineation, route analysis, and delivery regimes. This tutorial is a brief overview of the Network Analyst extension. </p><p>Goals of the Exercise </p><p>Introduction to: • Creating a Network Dataset • Using the Network Analyst for Route Finding</p><p>Computer and Data Requirements </p><p>To carry out this exercise, you need to have a computer that runs ArcView 9.3.</p><p>You will be working with the following datasets which can be downloaded in zipped format from the course website: 1. Roads.shp – Shapefile of US and TX highways in surrounding counties 2. Towns.shp – Shapefile of nearby towns</p><p>Texas A&M University Department of Civil Engineering 3. Counties.shp – Shapefile of local counties</p><p>Download these files and save them to a working directory on your computer for later.</p><p>Procedure </p><p>Note that the following procedure is a general outline that can be followed to complete this lesson. However, you are encouraged to experiment with the program and be creative.</p><p>A. Creating a Shapefile Based Network Dataset</p><p>In this part of the exercise, you are going to create the Network Dataset that will be used for route finding in the latter portions of the exercise.</p><p>1. From the Start Menu, Open ArcCatalog 9.3.</p><p>2. Enable the Network Analyst Extension by clicking on Tools/Extensions. </p><p>3. Click Network Analyst and click Close. The Network Analyst extension has now been loaded into ArcCatalog.</p><p>4. Navigate to the working directory where you saved the datasets. </p><p>5. Right click on Roads.shp.</p><p>6. Click on New Network Dataset.</p><p>7. The name of the Network Dataset is Roads_ND by default. Click Next to continue.</p><p>Texas A&M University 2 Department of Civil Engineering 8. The next part of the dialogue addresses connectivity. Connectivity defines how features connect to each other. The default setting for connectivity is at endpoints only. For this exercise, the defaults are the correct settings. You may want to click on the Connectivity button and explore the settings. Just click Next to continue.</p><p>9. The next part of the dialogue refers to elevation fields. Older versions of ArcView established connectivity by elevation fields. If two points had the same location and elevation, they were connected. If they had different elevations, they were not directly connected (e.g., a highway overpass). For</p><p>Texas A&M University 3 Department of Civil Engineering this exercise, leave No checked when asked to modify connectivity with elevation field data and click Next to continue.</p><p>10. On the next dialogue, click Yes to Model Turns. Only Global Turns will be modeled. Click Next to Continue.</p><p>11. On the next screen, you will have the option of setting the attributes for the network dataset. Accept the defaults and click Next to continue.</p><p>Texas A&M University 4 Department of Civil Engineering 12. On the next screen, you are asked if you want to establish driving directions for this dataset. Click Yes and then click on the Directions button. The following screen will appear. This screen is used to define which fields have the street names. Increase the Number of Alternate Names to 1. Under Name, change the Primary Street Name Field to SIGN1. Change the Alternate1 Street Name Field to SIGN2. Click OK and then Next to continue.</p><p>Texas A&M University Department of Civil Engineering 5 13. The final screen is a summary of all the settings created during this process. Click Finish. The computer will now create the network dataset with the properties you specified. After a moment, the following screen will appear. Click Yes to build the network dataset.</p><p>14. This portion of the exercise is complete. Two new files have been created. One is called Roads_ND, and the other is called Roads_ND_Junctions. </p><p>B. Performing Route Solver Calculations and Viewing Directions</p><p>In this portion of the exercise, you will solve for the best route when traveling from College Station to Navasota, Brenham, Giddings, Caldwell, and back to Bryan.</p><p>1. Open an empty map document in ArcMap 9.3. </p><p>2. Click on Add Data . Add Counties.shp, and Towns.shp to the Map. </p><p>These files are just for visual and spatial reference during the exercise. </p><p>3. Right click on the Towns Layer and select Properties. Under the Labels tab, change the Text String Label Field from QUAD_NAME to FEATURE_NA. Click OK </p><p>4. Label each layer by right-clicking on each layer and selecting Label Features.</p><p>Texas A&M University 6 Department of Civil Engineering 5. Click on Tools/Extensions and enable the Network Analyst extension. Click on View/Toolbars/Network Analyst to view the Network Analyst Toolbar. Dock the toolbar.</p><p>6. Click on the View/Hide Network Analyst Window button to show the</p><p>Network Analyst Window. Dock the Network Analyst window below the Table of Contents.</p><p>7. Click on Add Data . Add Roads_ND.ND to the Map. Click on Yes</p><p> when it asks to add all feature classes that participate in ‘Roads_ND’ to the map.</p><p>Texas A&M University 7 Department of Civil Engineering</p><p>8. From the Network Analyst Toolbar, select Network Analyst/New Route. Several layers are automatically added to the map.</p><p>9. The next step is to locate the stops along the route. The route will begin in College Station and proceed to Navasota, Brenham, Caldwell, and return to Bryan. Each stop must be located at a junction on the network. To add stops, click Stops on the Network Analyst Window. </p><p>10. For practice, add a stop anywhere on the map. Click the New Network Location tool on the Network Analyst Toolbar and then click anywhere </p><p>Texas A&M University 8 Department of Civil Engineering on the map to add a stop. If the stop is not on the network, it will be displayed with a red question mark next to the stop. </p><p>11. To move the stop, click on the Move Network Location tool on the </p><p>Network Analyst Toolbar. Select the stop and drag it to a junction that is on the network. When the stop is on the network, it will be displayed as a numbered circle at the stop location. </p><p>12. To remove the stop from the route, right click on the stop and click Delete. Delete the practice stop you made in the previous step.</p><p>13. Click on junctions in each of the towns to add stops. Add the stops in the following order: 1. College Station, 2. Navasota, 3. Brenham, 4. Caldwell, 5. Bryan. You will probably need to zoom in to each city to add the stop correctly. The following images show the exact locations of each stop. Texas A&M University 9 Department of Civil Engineering Texas A&M University Department of Civil Engineering 10</p><p>14. The stops are now defined. To find the best route to travel to all the cities in the order specified, click the Solve tool on the Network Analyst Toolbar. </p><p>Network analyst solves the routing problem and displays the best route.</p><p>15. To view the directions, click on the Directions tool on the Network</p><p>Analyst Toolbar. You can only view directions after a route has been solved. The following window appears with directions.</p><p>Texas A&M University Department of Civil Engineering 11 16. By default, the stops are named Graphic Pick 1, Graphic Pick 2, etc. You can change the names of the stops to the names of the towns. To change the names of each stop, expand the Stops tree in the Network Analyst Window and right click on a stop and select Properties. You can change the Name to the city name. For this example, Graphic Pick 1 was College Station. You can also change the name of the Route by the same method.</p><p>17. Click on the Directions tool again and view the directions with the</p><p> updated names of the stops. This is the end of the exercise.</p><p>Texas A&M University 12 Department of Civil Engineering</p>