Here are answers to some of the most common questions that we are asked about the Map Suite Routing Extension .NET GIS control. If you still have questions after reading these, feel free to post them in our Routing Extension discussion forum. Our forums are monitored by our development staff in order to provide detailed and technical answers when you need them.

The Map Suite Routing Extension is licensed on a per developer and per production server basis. If you are deploying your routing solution inside a desktop application then all deployment is royalty-free and all that is needed is a developer license. However, if your routing solution is utilizing a Web or centralized server, additional production server licenses are required.

The Map Suite Routing extension can be used with virtually any type of dataset. By utilizing the flexible feature source support inside of Map Suite, you can easily read ShapeFile data, SQL Server 2008 data and Oracle Spatial data, just to name a few examples. Additionally, with Map Suite's extensible framework, you can even build support for your own proprietary formats.

The Map Suite Routing Extension provides a routing layer class that will allow you to easily add and display routes on your map using any of the Map Suite 3.x editions (Desktop, Web, Silverlight or Services).

The Map Suite Routing Extension was built for doing routing within a localized area such as your metro area, county or city. However, with the flexible API that the Map Suite Routing Extension offers, you are free to implement a routing solution that meets your specific needs.

No. Map Suite Routing is designed as an engine that can “consume” your own data. To facilitate this, Map Suite Routing includes a GenerateRoutingData API that can make your dataset routable, which you must run first. In order for this process to work, your data must meet some basic qualifications, including: it must contain only line shapes, and these lines must touch others at each end in order for the routing engine to consider them a contiguous path that can be traversed. For more detailed information about using Map Suite Routing, see the QuickStart Guide or visit the product's discussion forum.