Hi,

I'm trying to have  a diagram constantly rearranged using the spring layout while still letting the user interact with it.  Can this be achieved? Should the arrange() be called in another thread or using a timer?

Thanks in advance for your help with this!

Jean-Francois

Hi,

I dont know whether this will work well. The SpringLayout updates some state variables after each iteration (e.g. simulated node speeds), so calling the Arrange method N times with 1 iteration won't produce the same layout as calling it once with N iterations. I guess our developers could add a NextIteration method to let you advance the layout algorithm from a timer event, updating the internal state as needed.

Stoyan

Hi Stoyo,

First thanks for the quick answer.

I tried to apply your suggestion of having less frequent calls with more iterations. The problem is that it gives a much more "chopy" or "stuttering" behavior as a large number of iterations are applied and then there's a pause.
Having a nextIteration() as you proposed would certainly be great in achieving a smooth behavior. I think that nextIteration() could simply be like a call to arrange() that would not reset the internal state, but still if needed execute more than one iteration in order not to have to be called too frequently.

I have a second problem that right now is more annoying for my application. I need to be able to fix the position of some nodes while still applying the spring Layout. I tried to set the IgnoreLayout property, but then it seems that the node is no longer included at all in the springLayout algorithm meaning that the connected nodes are "jumping" to strange positions.
Basically what I'm trying to achieve is something like the clustered layout, but I need to be able to fix the position of some key nodes.

Jean-Francois