Extend a route

Available with Location Referencing license.

Extending a route involves adding length to the beginning or end of the route. As with other route editing activities, centerlines provide the location and geometry to extend a route.

The centerline features you use to extend routes can be existing features in the centerline feature class, be digitized into the centerline feature class (using aerial photography, satellite imagery, or other basemaps for guidance), be copied and pasted from other feature classes, or be imported from CAD files or other ArcGIS-supported data sources. In addition to extending the route, the Extend tool can update the calibration points.

Note:
  • Measures on the route are recalibrated downstream from the extended section of the route.
    Example 1: Before extending a route at beginning
  • As shown in the case above, the route has measures from 0 feet to 10 feet before extension. The geometric length of the centerline used for extension is 10 feet. When you extend this route from the beginning, the measures for the extended section start at 0 feet and end at 10 feet.

    When you recalibrate the measures downstream, the original part of the route is recalibrated and the resulting extended route has measures from 0 feet to 20 feet.

    Example 1: After extending the route at the beginning, route is recalibrated downstream
  • Gap calibration rules are followed when editing routes.
  1. Add the centerline and network feature class to a map.

    Alternatively, open a map in which the centerline and network feature class are present.

    Note:

    The information model expects only one centerline at any given location. Ensure that the centerlines you're using for your edit do not overlap other centerlines in the LRS.

    Note:

    Traditionally versioned networks must be edited through a direct connection to the geodatabase. Branch versioned networks, including networks configured with a user-generated route ID, must be edited through a feature service.

  2. Zoom to the location where you want to extend the route.
    Note:

    The centerline feature for extending the route must exist in the centerline feature class before extending the route.

  3. On the Location Referencing tab, in the Routes group, click Extend Extend.
    Extend button

    The Extend Route pane appears with the Select By Rectangle Select By Rectangle option selected by default.

    You can use multiple centerlines to extend a route.

  4. Use your mouse to select one or more centerlines on the map by drawing a rectangle at the location of the route you want to extend.

    You can also click the Select one or more centerlines drop-down arrow and choose one of the other selection tools: Select By Polygon Select by Polygon, Select By Lasso Select by Lasso, Select By Circle Select by Circle, Select By Line Select by Line, or Select By Trace Select By Trace.

    Alternatively, you can use the interactive selection tools on the Map tab on the ArcGIS Pro ribbon.

    The selected centerlines are highlighted on the map and the Allow choosing of one or more centerlines button Allow choosing of one or more centerlines appears in the Extend Route pane. The Selected Centerlines count is shown above the table.

    Note:
    • The direction of digitization determines the direction of calibration, increasing in the direction of digitization. You can reverse direction for the chosen centerlines using the Flip the direction of the centerlines button Flip the direction of the centerlines. This leads to an in-memory flip of the centerlines' direction and the change in direction is not permanent.
    • If the centerlines do not touch the route at the extended location, click the Extension Location drop-down arrow and choose Begin or End.
    • You can keep the centerlines chosen after realigning the route.
    • If the centerline was created as a curve, Roads and Highways converts the curve into a densified polyline feature.
  5. Click the Allow choosing of one or more centerlines button Allow choosing of one or more centerlines.

    A table appears in the Extend Route pane with each chosen centerline in a numbered row that corresponds to the selection order. Chosen centerlines are numbered on the map and highlighted. The Chosen Centerlines count is shown below the table.

    Extend Route pane with multiple centerlines chosen
    Note:

    The Recalibrate route downstream check box appears only when the route is extended at the beginning. If this option is checked, the measures downstream of the extension are updated.

  6. Optionally, choose one or more rows from the Order column and use the buttons below the table to change the centerline selection order. You can also drag rows to change the order.

    Changes in the table selection order are also shown on the map.

    Tools available in the centerlines table

    ToolTool nameTool description
    Allow choosing of one or more centerlines

    Allow choosing of one or more centerlines

    Allows you to choose the centerlines on the map and displays them in a table by order of selection. Use the move buttons below the table or drag rows to reorder the chosen centerlines.

    Clear the currently chosen centerlines

    Clear the currently chosen centerlines

    Clears the chosen centerlines and keeps the selected centerlines. You can reselect after clicking this button or click the Allow choosing one or more centerlines button a second time.

    Move chosen centerlines up

    Move chosen centerlines up

    Moves one or more selected centerlines up a row in the table order.

    Move chosen centerlines to the top

    Move chosen centerlines to the top

    Moves one or more centerlines to the top of the table order.

    Move chosen centerlines down

    Move chosen centerlines down

    Moves one or more centerlines down a row in the table order.

    Move chosen centerlines to the bottom

    Move chosen centerlines to the bottom

    Moves one or more centerlines to the bottom of the table order.

    Flip the direction of the centerlines

    Flip the direction of the centerlines

    Reverses the direction of the chosen centerlines. This leads to an in-memory flip of the centerlines' direction and the change in direction is not permanent.

    Remove the chosen centerlines

    Remove the chosen centerlines

    Removes the chosen centerline from the table order but leaves it selected.

    Tip:

    To change the display field in the centerlines table, right-click the centerline feature class in the Contents pane and choose Properties from the context menu. On the Layer Properties dialog box, click the Display tab, and click the Display field drop-down arrow to change its value. In the previous image, the display field is OBJECTID.

  7. Choose the Network option that has a route you want to extend.
    Note:

    To edit using feature services, the LRS Network must be published with linear referencing and version management capabilities.

  8. Click the Choose route from map button Choose route from map to choose a route to extend.
    Note:

    After clicking the Choose route from map button Choose route from map, you can hover over the routes to see the route and measure at the location of the pointer.

    If only one applicable route exists at the edit location on the map, click the route name to select it. If multiple routes are applicable, click the location and choose one of the applicable routes from the Select Route dialog box.

    You can set map scale options for the display of route and measure information on the Options dialog box, on the Location Referencing tab.

    Tip:

    You can't extend a route to fill a gap between routes.

  9. Click the Calendar Calendar and specify the start date.
    • Alternatively, provide the date in the Effective Date text box.
    • Double-click the empty Effective Date text box to populate today's date.
  10. Verify that the automatically populated From Measure value appears as expected in the Extended Section.
    • If the route is being extended at the end, the suggested From Measure value is the same as the To Measure value of the original route.
    • If the route is being extended from the beginning, the suggested From Measure value is 0.
  11. Alternatively, provide a From Measure value.

    If you do not know the start measure, allow ArcGIS Roads and Highways to suggest it. Click the Recalculate From Measure button Recalculate From Measure to do so. This value is calculated as the difference between the To Measure value and the geometric length of the centerline.

  12. Verify that the automatically populated To Measure value appears as expected in the Extended Section.
    Note:
    • If the route is being extended at the end, the suggested To Measure value is the suggested From Measure value plus the geometric length of the centerline.
    • If the route is being extended from the beginning, the suggested To Measure value is the suggested From Measure value plus the geometric length of the centerline.
  13. Alternatively, provide a To Measure value of your choice.

    If you do not know the end measure, allow Roads and Highways to suggest it. Click the Recalculate To Measure button Recalculate To Measure to do so. This value is calculated as the sum of the From Measure value and the geometric length of the centerline.

  14. Click Run.
    Note:

    If your route edit will result in the introduction of one or more physical gaps on the route, a prompt appears to alert you before the tool is run. If you don't plan to create a gapped route, answer No and edit the digitized centerlines so that no gaps result during route editing.

    If the route being edited already had one or more physical gaps, and no more physical gaps were introduced by the edit, no prompt will appear.

    You can prevent unplanned centerlines by enabling snapping in the active map, or by enabling snapping using the Edit tab, Snapping group, Snapping button List By Snapping.

    You can disable this warning by unchecking the Warn before allowing route edits that can create physical gaps check box in Location Referencing options.

    The route is extended. The original route is retired with To Date populated with the Effective Date value. A newly extended route is created with From Date as the Effective Date option, and To Date set to <NULL>.

    Note:

    If a message regarding acquiring locks or reconciling appears, conflict prevention is enabled.

Extend a route in a line network

In the first example, RouteX has a From measure of 15 and a To measure of 20. RouteX will be extended from the beginning. The proposed From measure of the extended section is 5 and the proposed To measure is 10.

Example 1 input: RouteX will be extended from beginning.

If you choose not to recalibrate the route downstream, the RouteX measures after extension will be 5 and 10 for the first part and will remain 15 and 20 for the second part.

The line orders after the extension are recalculated. The line order for the extended part of RouteX will be 100 and RouteY will be 200.

Example 1 output: The line order for the extended part of RouteX will be 100 and RouteY will be 200.

In the second example, RouteX will be extended at the end. RouteX has existing measures from 5 to 10. The proposed From measure is 15 and the To measure is 20.

Example 2 input: RouteX will be extended at the end.

The RouteX measures after extension are 5 and 10 for the first part, and 15 and 20 for the second part.

In this example, there is no change in the line order because the route is extended at the end.

Example 2 output: No change in the line order because the route is extended at end.