TopoLayout: Graph Layout by Topological Features

We describe a new multi-level algorithm to draw graphs based on the topological features they contain. Topological features are recursively detected and their subgraphs are collapsed into single nodes, forming a graph hierarchy. Once the hierarchy is computed, we draw the subgraphs of the hierarchy, using an appropriate algorithm for each topological feature. Our layout algorithms are areaaware: the space required to draw a topological feature is taken into account when the node representing that feature is drawn at a higher level of the hierarchy. Unlike previous work, TopoLayout can be geared to graphs that contain specific topological features to produce layouts that emphasize those features without asymptotic or empirical runtime penalty.