Abstract
We present a novel hierarchical force-directed method for drawing large graphs. The algorithm produces a graph embedding in an Euclidean space E of any dimension. A two or three dimensional drawing of the graph is then obtained by projecting a higher-dimensional embedding into a two or three dimensional subspace of E. Projecting high-dimensional drawings onto two or three dimensions often results in drawings that are “smoother” and more symmetric. Among the other notable features of our approach are the utilization of a maximal independent set filtration of the set of vertices of a graph, a fast energy function minimization strategy, efficient memory management, and an intelligent initial placement of vertices. Our implementation of the algorithm can draw graphs with tens of thousands of vertices using a negligible amount of memory in less than one minute on a mid-range PC.
This research partially supported by NSF under Grant CCR-9625289, and ARO under grant DAAH04-96-1-0013.
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Gajer, P., Goodrich, M.T., Kobourov, S.G. (2001). A Multi-dimensional Approach to Force-Directed Layouts of Large Graphs. In: Marks, J. (eds) Graph Drawing. GD 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1984. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44541-2_20
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