A Framework for the Static and Interactive Visualization of Statecharts

We present a framework for the automatic generation of layouts of statechart diagrams. Statecharts [16] are widely used for the requirements specification of reactive systems. Our framework is based on several techniques that include hierarchical drawing, labeling, and floorplanning, designed to work in a cooperative environment. Therefore, the resulting drawings enjoy several important properties: they emphasize the natural hierarchical decomposition of states into substates; they have a low number of edge crossings; they have good aspect ratio; and require a small area. We also present techniques for interactive operations. We have implemented our framework and obtained drawings for several statechart examples. Communicated by Michael Kaufmann: submitted April 2001; revised January 2002. Research supported in part by Sandia National Labs and by the Texas Advanced Research Program under grant number 009741-040. R. Castelló et al., Visualization of Statecharts, JGAA, 6(3) 313–351 (2002) 314