Calculating the shortest paths using the Road graph plugin
This recipe shows you how to use the built-in Road graph plugin to calculate the shortest paths in a network.
Getting ready
To follow this recipe, load network_pgr.shp from the sample data. Additionally, make sure that the Road graph plugin is enabled in Plugin Manager.
How to do it…
The Road graph plugin enables us to route between two points that are selected on the map. Before we can use this, we have to configure it first, as follows:
Enable the Shortest path panel by navigating to View | Panels. This should add the plugin panel to the user interface.
Go to Vector | Road graph | Settings to get to the configuration dialog. For now, the default settings, as shown in the following screenshot, should be fine. Note that the network layer is selected as Transportation layer. Click on OK to confirm the settings:
Once the settings are configured, we can calculate our first route. Select the Start and Stop locations using the buttons marked...
