Consuming the logistics services using ArcMap

After connecting ArcGIS for Desktop to logistic.arcgis.com, which is one of the servers providing ArcGIS Online network analysis services, you can begin solving closest facility, service area, and vehicle routing problems.

Using the logistics.arcgis.com service in ArcMap

The logistics.arcgis.com service contains the geoprocessing tools listed below. The links in the list connect to detailed help for running each of the tools.

• Find Closest Facilities—Measures the cost of traveling between incidents and facilities and determines which are nearest to one other.

• Find Routes—Finds the quickest or shortest paths to visit stops. The tool is capable of finding routes that visit several input stops in a sequence you predetermine or in the sequence that minimizes overall travel. You can group the input stops into different routes using the RouteName field, and the tool will output one route for each group of stops, allowing you to generate routes for many vehicles in a single solve operation.

• Generate Service Areas—Creates an area that encompasses all accessible streets within a drive distance or drive time.

• Solve Location-Allocation—Chooses one or more facility locations that most efficiently serve demand sources. Use this tool to help find the store locations that provide the most convenience to consumers, the fire station locations that reach the most citizens and property in the least amount of time, and so on.

• Solve Vehicle Routing Problem—Routes an entire fleet of vehicles to visit various orders for inspections, deliveries, pickups, and so on. It minimizes the overall operating cost for the fleet.

• Edit Vehicle Routing Problem—This tool is rarely used in ArcMap. It was created to support specialized dispatching applications. You should use Solve Vehicle Routing Problem when working in ArcMap.

  Dive-in:

  It is common to solve a long-running analysis using the Solve Vehicle Routing Problem tool and then edit and solve a portion of the same problem again using Edit Vehicle Routing Problem. The Edit Vehicle Routing Problem tool can also be used to generate solutions to short-running analyses, which can finish under 60 seconds. This is roughly a problem of fewer than three routes and 100 orders.

  The purpose of Edit Vehicle Routing Problem is to reduce the interaction time between the client (ArcMap in this case) and the server (logistics.arcgis.com) so results are delivered as quickly as possible. The Edit VRP tool calls a synchronous service, whereas the Solve VRP tool calls an asynchronous service. Initially solving a vehicle routing problem can take longer than a client can hold an active connection with a server, so Solve Vehicle Routing Problem calls an asynchronous service. When a client connects with an asynchronous service, it feeds the information the service needs to solve the problem. It then closes the connection with the server and continually checks back with the server to see whether the solution is ready. Once the service says the solution is ready, an active connection is reestablished and the solution is delivered to the client.

  Alternatively, Edit Vehicle Routing Problem calls a synchronous service—wherein time is saved because an active client-server connection is maintained throughout the solve process. Starting with an existing VRP solution and solving a portion of it again is often quick enough that the client-server connection isn't lost.

These tools are capable of solving transportation-network problems almost anywhere because it references road data that covers much of the world. So it is likely you can solve problems for your area of interest. Since most of the global road data also includes traffic data, you can solve network problems while accounting for dynamic traffic conditions. For instance, you can generate a service area to see how far you can drive from a point when departing at 10:00 a.m. and compare that to a departure time of 6:00 p.m.

The steps that follow provide general guidance on performing an analysis using any one of these tools. For help on specific parameters, click the links in the list above. (The side-pane help for these tools is empty. This is a known limitation that will be fixed in ArcGIS for Desktop version 10.2.)

Steps:

1. Once you have connected to logistics.arcgis.com, add a basemap or other reference data to ArcMap and zoom in to your study area.
2. Click the Catalog Window button on the Standard toolbar to open the Catalog window.
3. Expand GIS Servers > arcgis on logistics.arcgis.com > World and expand the appropriate toolbox.
4. Double-click the task in the toolbox to open the tool dialog box and begin entering parameter values.
5. Once the parameters are set, click OK.

   The information from the dialog box is sent to the server. When the server has completed the task, the results are returned to ArcMap in the form of layers. The layers are turned off by default. Check them on in the Table of Contents window to see the results on the map.

   Tip:

   There are several parameters in these tools. If you need to change just a few parameters and run the tool again, save time by opening the tool with the parameter settings you previously set. To do this, open the Results window by clicking Geoprocessing > Results. Expand Current Session and double-click the node immediately below Current Session.

Notes

Although it's possible to add the logistics.arcgis.com tools to geoprocessing scripts, keep in mind that your account's user name and password will be visible to whomever opens the file.