First, we present a simple strategy, suitable for beginners (but still powerful enough to cover several applications). Second, we show how to work if performance is more important than aesthetics. Third, we describe how to behave if aesthetics are more important than performance. Fourth, we show how several choices are available for constructing drawings that are more or less compact. Finally, we show how to customize the drawing according to your special requirements
If you want to construct an orthogonal drawing of a graph with BLAG, simply do the following:
Algorithm number 1 corresponds to the default algorithm for orthogonal drawings.
If performance is more important than aesthetics
If you have strict performance requirements, then you can change the
configuration file shown above to obtain drawings that are
slightly worse either in terms of number of bends along edges or in terms
of global area occupied by the drawing. On the other hand you will have
better time performance. GDT offers several facilities to explore the
performance/effectiveness trade-off.
For example, if you accept to have more bends that those that are strictly
needed, you can replace the above configuration file with the following
one.
Note: the current version of GDT allows to apply code 0
only to graphs that are biconnected and
whose nodes have at most four incident edges.
A graph is biconnected if the removal of one node is not
sufficient to cut it into two (or more) disconnected pieces.
If aesthetics are more important than performance
If you have strict aesthetics requirements, you can replace
the above configuration file with the following
one.
Note: the current version of GDT allows to apply code 2
only to graphs that are biconnected.
A graph is biconnected if the removal of one node is not
sufficient to cut it into two (or more) disconnected pieces.
Note: code 2 causes the invocation of a branch and
bound algorithm, that is potentially exponential in time requirement.
This makes it unsuitable for graphs with more that 100 vertices.
<BOFF VERSION="1.1"/>
This replaces the default algorithm for orthogonalization with a
faster one.
<BEGIN_OPTIONS>
<ALGORITHM> 0 </ALGORITHM>
<END_OPTIONS>
<BOFF VERSION="1.1"/>
You will obtain drawings that are much
better in terms of number of bends along edges.
On the other hand you will have worse time performance.
An orthogonal drawing constructed with code 2 of the same graph
of the previous figure is shown below.
<BEGIN_OPTIONS>
<ALGORITHM> 2 </ALGORITHM>
<END_OPTIONS>