A Multi-dimensional Approach to Force-Directed Layouts of Large Graphs

  • Authors:
  • Pawel Gajer;Michael T. Goodrich;Stephen G. Kobourov

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-;-

  • Venue:
  • GD '00 Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Graph Drawing
  • Year:
  • 2000

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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.