Graph Layout

[Markus Elfring]

Can objects in the graphics be placed on circles? I propose that elements
can be grouped with their relationships by this layout feature into
"bubbles". Each object can be connected with straight lines or "rays".
I assume that it can become difficult to draw a lot of
bending lines in big diagrams.

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

Circular placement is now possible with the clone tiler

[Markus Elfring (elfring)]

Interesting ...
1. Where are the capabilities of the tiler tool documented?
2. How do think about "ray connections"?

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

1. So far it's in tips&tricks tutorial only, in version
0.41. Some information is also in release notes:

http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes

2. Connectors are a whole different topic. You may want to
write to the devel list, as some people are working on
connectors right now.

[Markus Elfring (elfring)]

1. The support for symmetry groups is very useful, too.
My thoughts were in an other application area. The tiler
uses a single object to perform a powerful transformation
on it. I propose the grouping of several subobjects into
one.

1.1 Can the
picture "http://jgraph.com/images/gxl2svg.png" for the
Graph Conversion example and the
page "http://jgraph.com/layout.html" show my idea?

1.2 How do you think about the Small Circular (Ring/Star)
Example by the application "ILOG JViews Demo Layout
Applet"?
http://mvdemo01.ilog.com/layoutapplet/

1.3 Would you like to reuse a circle layout?
http://boost.org/libs/graph/doc/circle_layout.html

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

mjwybrow: looks like this RFE is about connectors

[Michael Wybrow (mjwybrow)]

What we're talking about here is Graph Layout. This sort of
functionality would first depend on the connector tool that
I am currently working on.

There is a member of our research group at Monash
University, Tim Dwyer, who works on layout algorithms and is
interested in exploring the possibility of graph layout
functionality in Inkscape once connectors are done. More on
this in a couple of months when we have connectors.

[Michael Wybrow (mjwybrow)]

Tim has now started working on Graph Layout in Inkscape and
has already implemented one algorithm. He'd be the person
to talk to about this. I'm reassigned the feature request
to him.

[Tim Dwyer (tgdwyer)]

Some basic graph layout (a network of connectors in inkscape
is a "graph") functionality is now implemented. We support
a type of layout called "constrained force-directed layout".
 Basically, it tries to place shapes (graph nodes) joined by
connectors close together while keeping disconnected shapes
far apart. Constraints can be added to enforce special
requirements such as having connectors with end-markers
(arrows) point downwards, or to keep shapes from overlapping.

Many other drawing conventions can be supported by
constraints, I intend to add more user interface components
for specifying additional constraints as time goes on.

[Markus Elfring (elfring)]

Originator: YES

Would you like to support this use case by your tool box?
http://jung.sourceforge.net/pmwiki/index.php/Main/ImageGallery?action=dispimg&im=circlelayout.p.jpg
http://azureuswiki.com/index.php/3D_View

[Markus Elfring (elfring)]

Originator: YES

Will it become easier to organise objects in this way?
http://www.cs.umass.edu/%7Eemery/why-umass-rocks/umass-collab-graph.jpg
http://www.yworks.com/products/demo/yfiles/circulardemo.jnlp