Short path calculation

Finding the shortest or more efficient path when visiting a set of locations is a very important task in Transportation Problems. Delivery services need to provide to their delivery men the best route they must take to reach their costumers; Emergency Services must come quick to accidents, etc.

The algorithm used, least-costly route, accepts intermediary stops between the origin and destination and considers impedance the object attributes such as speed, runway width and traffic volume.

NOTE: Supposing that you have already created and modeled your network by editing lines and points and creating objects associated to attributes, you can proceed to the next step of short path calculation, following the steps below:


Executing the optimal path calculation:

  • select on the "Control Panel" an Information Layer of the Network Category;
  • on the main menu click on Network and then choose the option Short Path... . The window "Short Path Calculation" is presented. Observe that the active IL is presented on the field Current Infolayer;
  • in "Get", choose one of the options, in any order: Depart Point, Arrival Point or Intermediary Point. The points are acquired on the screen using the mouse. The associated numbers, network nodes, are shown on the boxes "Depart" and "Arrival". Each intermediary point chosen is also presented in the corresponding box. It is not mandatory to choose intermediary points but if you do it, the path will go through them. The order of visitation to intermediary points is not available and the algorithm visits these points in the order established on the list;
  • if you want to remove some intermediary points or all of them, click on "Remove" or "Remove All";
  • click on the box "Impedance Calculation" if you want to redifine a line impedance values. If change a impedance values of lines, unchecked this field. When the “Impedance Calculation” is enabled, choose in the double list which impedance shall be used. If the chosen option is “Object Attribute”, the list “Object Category” becomes available and the user should then choose one of its options.
  • the “Impedance as Attribute” list is presented so the user can select the object’s attribute that will be the impedance. If the impedance choice is “Network Distance”, value already stored in the database, the categories and the attributes lists become unavailable.
  • click on the Apply button and the “Minimum Cost” value is shown in the footnote area of the window.
  • click on the description button to obtain a report of all the lines visited in this path.