How can I show multiple routes on the same map?

When creating a route in Maptitude, it often comes up that your stops are split among multiple routes and you wish to show this visually on a map. This article goes over how to create multiple routes, switch between them easily and show them both geographically on your map. You can also check out our vehicle routing add-in, which allows you to route multiple vehicles at the same time.

To follow along with this tip, you will need your data split into several selection sets, each set representing one route. See Working with Maptitude Selection Sets for help with getting these set up.You can also follow the steps in this article to use the clustering tool to set them up automatically.

 

In this example we will be creating two routes from two selection sets called North and South on the layer My Data.

Step 1: Create the route 

In this step we will create each route separately and save the routes to a file. Then we will run through at the end putting all the routes from a file onto the map.

1. Click  to open the routing manager
2. Click
   1. For Layer choose My Data
   2. For Selection Set choose North
   3. For Order by choose None
   4. For Stop Name choose the field in your data that contains the name of each stop
3. Click OK
4. Click  and under Routing Options set the color you want displayed for this route. This should be different for each route. I will start with Blue.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Optimize.
7. Click Save Route and call it North Route and save to an appropriate location
8. Click and choose Yes.

Repeat Step 1 for each selection set of points, changing the Selection Set in part 2 and the color in part 4 as needed.

Step 2: Add the routes to the map 

When the route is created, the roads travelled are highlighted in the selected color. This highlight is usually removed when a route is removed from the Routing Manager, but we can copy it to create a highlight that is independent from the route and works just as if you have drawn it yourself.

1. Click . Search for where you saved the route files to and click on one and choose Open. Check Use Route Options and click OK. 
2. Right-click somewhere on a highlighted section of road and choose Duplicate. This will create a duplicate of the route that is slightly offset from the original. Click the pointer tool and drag it to cover the original. When you are dragging a black and white dotted line appears – use the corners of this shape to line up with the stops.
3. When the copy of the route lines up with the original, click and choose Yes. This will drop the route from the map but leave the copy of the highlighted section.

Repeat Step 2 for all the other saved routes. To open a previous route for editing click  and search for the file you saved it to.