Integrations

Connect Your 4M Analytics Account to RouteStudy

If your organization maps its buried utilities with 4M Analytics, RouteStudy can pull that data into every route study automatically - so the routing engine avoids, and prices crossings against, the utilities you actually know about. Your 4M account stays in your control the whole time: you generate the key, you scope it, and you can revoke it from 4M's side at any moment.

What the connection does

4M Analytics publishes its utility data over a WFS feed - the same open standard GIS platforms like ArcGIS and QGIS use. RouteStudy speaks that standard directly. Once connected, every run in the project fetches the 4M utility layers that overlap that run's own corridor - nothing outside it - and treats them exactly like an uploaded utility file: buried infrastructure the route should avoid, and a priced crossing wherever avoiding it is not worth the detour.

If the connection ever fails mid-job - an expired key, a 4M outage - the run still completes on the base data and tells you, loudly, that the 4M layers were not included. A silent route computed without your utility data is the one outcome this integration is designed never to produce.

One thing to understand before connecting: the feed streams data your 4M account already contains. RouteStudy cannot request new 4M coverage on your behalf - defining an area of interest and getting it mapped happens in 4Map, under your 4M subscription, before any of this. If your 4M projects don't cover the corridor you're routing, connecting has no effect on that study: the run completes on RouteStudy's base data and reports that no 4M features were found in the corridor. Set up the study area in 4Map first; then every run here stays current with it.

Step 1 - Generate a WFS key in your 4M account

You need Admin access in 4Map, and 4M enables API access per account - if you have never used it, ask your 4M Customer Success Manager to turn it on (their standard process, per 4M's own WFS API guide). Then:

Log in to 4Map and click your initials in the top-right corner.
Select Generate API Key from the dropdown.
Set the Data Scope. You can scope the key to your whole organization or to one specific folder - scoping it to the folder for the project at hand is the tighter, better choice.
Optionally set an expiration date, then click Publish WFS and copy the WFS endpoint URL it produces.

The URL you copied contains your API key. Treat it like a password. RouteStudy stores it to run your jobs and never displays it again after you connect - and you can revoke the key from 4Map's Actions menu at any time, which cuts off RouteStudy's access instantly.

Step 2 - Paste it into your RouteStudy project

Open the project, and in the run form's data section - right below the upload buckets - find "Have a 4M Analytics account?". Click Connect, paste the WFS URL, and RouteStudy checks the connection live against 4M before saving: you should see it come back with the number of data layers your key exposes. A revoked, expired, or mistyped key is rejected on the spot with the reason, not discovered by a confusing first run.

From then on, every run in that project includes your 4M data automatically. The connection is per-project, which pairs naturally with folder-scoped keys: one client's 4M folder, one RouteStudy project.

What your data is used for

The fetched layers are staged for the job, used to build that run's cost surface and crossing schedule, and reported in the deliverables the way any utility layer is. Your 4M data is used only for your own project's runs - never shared, never pooled, never used for anyone else's routing. One thing worth checking on your side: that your agreement with 4M permits streaming your data into third-party tools you use, which is what the WFS API exists for.

No 4M account?

You can always export utility data from 4M (or any GIS source) as a shapefile or GeoPackage and drop it into the project's upload buckets - the routing treats it the same way. The connection just removes the export-download-upload loop, and keeps the data current as your 4M projects update. 4M's full export and integration options are covered in 4M's API and integrations documentation.