Scalable, Versatile and Simple Constrained Graph Layout

We describe a new technique for graph layout subject to constraints. Compared to previous techniques the proposed method is much faster and scalable to much larger graphs. For a graph with n nodes, m edges and c constraints it computes incremental layout in time O(n logn+m+ c) per iteration. Also, it supports a much more powerful class of constraint: inequalities or equalities over the Euclidean distance between nodes. We demonstrate the power of this technique by application to a number of diagramming conventions which previous constrained graph layout methods could not support. Further, the constraint-satisfaction method—inspired by recent work in position-based dynamics—is far simpler to implement than previous methods.