A starting point is set on network features to define the location in the network where a trace begins. One or more starting points must be defined for utility network traces.
You create and manage starting points in the Trace Locations pane on the Starting Points tab. In the Trace Locations pane, you can specify terminals as starting points, differentiate between coincident features, and set multiple starting points.
Keep the following in mind when working with starting points:
- For a starting point to be valid, the network feature it is placed on must exist in the network topology. Ensure that network features used for starting points have been validated.
- When working with spatial features on the map, a coincident point is created on the map to denote the starting location for the trace. You can select records from the nonspatial edge and junction object tables and add them to the Trace Locations pane to serve as starting points:
- For points, devices with terminals can specify a specific terminal to set as the starting point.
- For lines, a starting point can be placed anywhere along the line feature.
- For polygons, a point is placed at the centroid to mark the starting location.
- For junction objects, features with terminals can specify a specific terminal to set as the starting point.
- For edge objects, a starting point is placed on the record to mark the starting location.
- For subnetwork-based traces, the starting points must reside in the input tier.
- When using starting points on line features, the trace results will include the entire line feature, not
just from the portion of the midspan starting point.
Note:
By default, trace results are returned as a selection and include the entire line feature. When a starting point is placed midspan on an edge feature, you can use the Aggregate Geometry option of the Result Types parameter to return partial feature results in an output multipart geometry feature class.
- If the Subnetwork Name parameter value is specified for the Trace tool when performing a subnetwork trace, starting points are not used. The trace begins at the subnetwork controllers instead.
When a starting point is established using the Trace Locations pane, the UN_Temp_Starting_Points feature class is created in the project's default geodatabase. Successive starting points are appended to this class. To remove all starting points from a map, use the Clear All button 
.
Starting 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_Starting_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 starting 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_Starting_Points feature class and contain a value for it to be applied to the corresponding network feature as a starting point.
- When this field is not populated, features without a corresponding value are not used to place a starting point. This option is helpful when you want to maintain granularity over which features are used as starting points.
- The schema of the user-defined feature class or table must contain a PERCENTALONG field of type double to place starting points along an edge feature or edge object.
- The PERCENTALONG field must contain a value between 0.0 and 1.0 to indicate the location of the starting point along the edge.
- If the PERCENTALONG field is not present or does not contain an appropriate value, it is assumed the starting 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 starting 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 starting point is to be placed on an edge feature and placement on a junction is ignored.
Learn more about how to set starting points and barriers