Creating a complex (looping) route

1. Using any available method, select a simple chain of linear features that does not form a loop. For example, click the Edit tool on the Editor toolbar, move the pointer over a feature, then click the feature. Press the Shift key and continue to click all the features you want to use to create the route. The selected features will be highlighted.
2. Click the Make Route button on the Route Editing toolbar.
3. Choose the target in which the new feature will be created.
   • If you have feature templates for the layers in your map, click the Template button and click the template to use to create the new feature. You can also double-click the preview of the template to choose a different template.
   • If you do not have feature templates, click the layer in which to create the feature.
4. Click the Start Point button.
5. Move your pointer over the selected linear features and click the map when the start point is where you want the route measures to start.

   If you cannot see the start point on the map, it may be because you are not zoomed out far enough to see all the endpoints of the selected features. You can interact with the other ArcMap commands and tools (for example, Pan , Zoom Out , or Zoom to Selected Features) when the Make Route dialog box is displayed.

6. Click the option for how you want the route measure values to be obtained.
7. Click Make Route. The newly created route is now selected.
8. Using any available method, select a simple chain of linear features that forms the second half of the loop.
9. Click the Make Route button on the Route Editing toolbar.
10. Click the Start Point button.
11. Move your pointer over the selected linear features and click the map when the start point is where you want the route measures to start.
12. Click how you want the route measure values to be obtained.
13. Click Make Route. The newly created route is now selected.
14. Using any available method, select the two routes that will form the loop.
15. Click the Editor menu and click Merge.
16. Click the feature that the features will be merged into and will supply the attributes for the merged feature.
17. The Preserve overlapping segments check box only appears when you are merging two routes. Make sure this box is checked (the default) when you are creating a looping route.
18. Click OK.