Results of my Layouting experiments

Over the last couple of months, together with a couple of other people, I have been working on model visualization tooling, based on GraphViz and ZEST. However, the layout algorithms that come with these tools aren't as good as I'd like them to be; specifically, the algorithms in ZEST don't avoid node overlaps and aren't robust with regard to adding a few new nodes (i.e. the layout can change completely if you add new nodes).

A while ago I had the idea of using numerical simulations for layouting. Each node is assigned a negative charge (i.e. nodes repel each other) and the connections act as springs (i.e. they create a pull force between them). Doing an interative numerical simulation of the forces between them should result in a nice layout. That was the idea.

Since I couldn't convince somebody else to try this out, I had to do it myself :-) Here are the preliminary results.



I built this thing "from scratch" using Scala and Java2D. I think the results are convincing. The next steps would be to either integrate a layout along these lines into ZEST or to enhance my prototype to become a complete Eclipse-based model visualization solution.

I'd prefer the first alternative. Anybody interesting in integrating this approach into ZEST?  permalink