A simple and unified method for drawing graphs: Magnetic-spring algorithm

Abstract

A simple and unified heuristic method for nicely drawing directed, undirected and mixed graphs is proposed basing upon a new model called magnetic.spring model which is an extension of Eades's spring model. In the new model, the idea of controlling edge orientations by magnetic forces is employed. Since the method is conceptually intuitive, it is quite easy to understand, implement, tune and improve it. Examples of layouts and results of experiments are shown to demonstrate extensive possibilities of the method.

Visualization of Dynamic Program Aspects

“…For instance, it may be desirable to let all edges point downwards or outwards from the center. Sugiyama and Misue [20] introduced the concept of "magnetic" springs, i.e., magnetically charged springs which point in the direction of the surrounding magnetic field, like the needle of a compass. One problem is that it interferes with other layout goals.…”

Analysis of the Usage of Magnetic Force-directed Approach and Visual Techniques for Interactive Context-based Drawing of Multi-attributed Graphs

“…Considering that a constant number of iterations M cannot guarantee the quality of the resulting layout for any arbitrary graph, another approach to conditional stop is introduced which is based on comparing a threshold value with average energy of the system that is dynamically calculated according to (2):…”

“…1. An additional type of force was proposed by K. Sugiyama in [2]. This work introduces the concept of magnetic-spring graph model that is placed in different types of magnetic fields.…”

StarLion: Auto-configurable Layouts for Exploring Ontologies

“…RDF graphs contain more information than plain graphs and have more visualization needs (e.g subclass hierarchies must be vertical). For this reason we did not rely on such algorithms but we designed a dedicated force directed algorithm which combines the spring-model ( [1][2][3]) with the magneticspring model ( [4,5]). Apart from this, the notion of namespaces does not exist in plain graphs, while in RDF graphs plays an important role.…”

“…We adopt the force model that was proposed in [6] for visualizing E-R diagrams. Specifically, that model combines the spring-model (proposed and developed in [1][2][3]) with the magnetic-spring model (proposed in [4,5]). In our case we apply them on RDFS graphs.…”