Stopping points

Stopping points are used by the path trace to define the features serving as stop locations for a path.

A path trace begins at a start location, designated using starting points to identify the origin of the path to be analyzed. Stop locations specify the end of the path and can be optionally designated using stopping points. When stopping points are not explicitly provided, stop locations for a path trace are defined when barriers are encountered, when the maximum number of hops (Max Hops) defined for the trace has been reached, and when the trace encounters junctions at the endpoint of the path with a valence of 1.

When stopping points are used to specify stop locations for a path trace, all other types of stop locations are ignored.

You can create and manage stopping points, specify terminals, differentiate between coincident features, and set multiple stopping points using the Stop tab in the Trace pane.

Keep the following in mind when working with stopping points:

• For a stopping point to be valid, the network feature it is placed on must exist in the network topology. Ensure that network features used for stopping points have been validated.

• When working with spatial features on the map, a coincident point is created on the map to denote the location where the trace should end. You can also select records from the nonspatial edge and junction object tables and add them to the Trace pane to serve as stopping points:

  • For points, devices with terminals require that you specify a terminal to set as the stopping point.

  • For lines, a stopping point can be placed anywhere along the line feature.

    • The PERCENTALONG value for the stopping point can be modified in the UN_Temp_Stopping_Points feature class.

  • For polygons, the stopping point is placed at the centroid to mark the location where the trace should end.

  • For edge objects, a stopping point is set on the object to specify the location where the trace should end.

    • By default, stopping points are placed with a percent along value of 0.5. This can be modified by editing the PERCENTALONG field for the stopping point in the UN_Temp_Stopping_Points feature class.

  • For junction objects, features with terminals in a traditional domain network require that you specify a terminal to set as the stopping point.

  • For grouped junction or edge objects with unit identifiers (unit IDs, units) in a telecom domain network, all units available to be traced are loaded to the Trace pane. You can change the First Unit and Last Unit parameter values to constrain the units to which the stopping point applies.

• When using stopping points on line features and edge objects, the default trace results include the entire line feature in the selection, not just from the portion to the midspan stopping point.

  Note:

  By default, trace results are returned as a selection and include the entire line feature. When a stopping point is placed midspan on a line, you can use the Aggregated Geometry option of the Result Types parameter to return partial feature results in an output multipart geometry feature class. When a stopping point is placed along a line, trace results end at the stopping point location and can return partial feature geometry for the feature. When edge objects are content of a line feature, partial geometry can also be displayed for edge objects with midspan stopping points in the aggregated geometry result using the Synthesize Geometries parameter.

When a stopping point is established using the Trace pane, the UN_Temp_Stopping_Points feature class is created in the project's default geodatabase. Successive stopping points are appended to this class. To remove all stopping points from a map, use the Clear All button on the Stop tab.

Stopping points can also be specified in a user-defined feature class or created by using the Add Trace Locations tool. This tool creates an output feature class with the same schema as the UN_Temp_Stopping_Points and allows selected spatial network features to be output to a user-defined feature class for use in a script or model.

When an existing user-defined feature class or table is used to supply stopping points for the Trace tool, the following are requirements:

• The schema of the user-defined feature class or table must contain a FEATUREGLOBALID field of type GUID similar to that found in the UN_Temp_Stopping_Points feature class and contain a value for it to be applied to the corresponding network feature as a stopping point.

  • When this field is not populated, features without a corresponding value are not used to place a stopping point.

• The schema of the user-defined feature class or table must contain a PERCENTALONG field of type double to place stopping points along a line feature or edge object.

  • The PERCENTALONG field must contain a value between 0.0 and 1.0 to indicate the location of the stopping point along the edge.

  • If the PERCENTALONG field is not present or does not contain an appropriate value, it is assumed the stopping point is to be placed on a junction, and placement along an edge is ignored.

• The schema of the user-defined feature class or table must contain a TERMINALID field of type long to place stopping points on a junction feature or junction object.

  • If the TERMINALID field is not present or does not contain an appropriate value, it is assumed the stopping point is to be placed on an edge feature, and placement on a junction is ignored.

• When working with a utility network version 7 or later, the schema of the user-defined feature class or table must contain a FEATUREOID field of type Big integer and a 64-bit OBJECTID field. The object ID field can be migrated to 64-bit using the Migrate Object ID To 64 Bit tool.

Learn more about how to set starting points, stopping points, and barriers