Graphviz alternative (or how to use it better)

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Graphviz alternative (or how to use it better)

Started 8 months ago by MyrddinE / 2 posts

MyrddinE
Member
Posted 8 months ago #

I'm using graphviz to help me figure out a new database... with tables as vertexes, and relationships as edges. But the graph layouts I'm seeing in Graphviz are all rather dismal. The graph gets 5 miles wide (default):

Extremely cramped (neato):

Or with massive whitespace (neato + scalexy).

The last is the most usable, but I'm thinking there have to be better visualization layout engines that can take a .DOT file and create tight bunches of related groups, separated by minimal whitespace. This should be possible either as an option in Graphviz that I'm not aware of, a pre-process tool that puts the XY coordinates into the .DOT file for Graphviz to use, or a completely different graphing engine.

I'm rather new to this, so please... be gentle. And money is a factor... I have none, so free would be nice.
nathany
FlowingData Editor
Posted 8 months ago #

I don't have much experience with graphviz, but this thread covered some alternatives:

http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/large-network-layout-and-visualization
seb
Member
Posted 8 months ago #

Hi,

If you can generate other file format like .NET, GDF, GraphML or XGMML you may be interested in Gephi (http://gephi.org/) in which you can set the node distance (repulsion) and apply a "label adjust" algorithm: http://gephi.org/2008/label-adjust/

About supported file formats: http://gephi.org/support/supported-graph-formats/

cheers
seb
Member
Posted 8 months ago #

Hi,

If you can generate other file format like .NET, GDF, GraphML or XGMML you may be interested in Gephi in which you can set the node distance (repulsion) and apply a "label adjust" algorithm: http://gephi.org/2008/label-adjust/

cheers