Hi

Our layered layout diagrams are proving slow to arrange when there are hundreds of nodes (five to ten minutes). I'm guessing I simply need to change some settings for layout? The code currently looks like this:

        Dim layout = New LayeredLayout()

        layout.StartNode = Me.RootNode

        layout.Anchoring = Anchoring.Ignore
        layout.Direction = Direction.Straight  'get P0 to the top
        layout.IgnoreNodeSize = True  ' false makes it slower
        layout.LayerDistance = Me.VerticalNodeSpacing  'default is 25 - this is the distance between the vert node bands
        layout.LinksCompactFactor = 0.5

        layout.NodeDistance = HorizontalNodeSpacing  'distance between adjacent nodes in the layer
        layout.Orientation = MindFusion.Diagramming.Layout.Orientation.Vertical
        layout.SplitLayers = False  ' split layers that are much wider than others
        layout.StableSort = True 'ensures the nodes always appear in the same position on each run
        layout.StraightenLongLinks = Me.StraightenLongLinks   'true makes it wider as has to arrange for only 2 bends on links that cross 2 or more layers
        layout.SwapPairsIterations = 2 ' default is 5, higher no. = less crossing links
        layout.TimeLimit = 10 ' 10 secs, should be more than enough.

        Debug.Print(Now.ToLongTimeString)

        layout.Arrange(diagram)

        Debug.Print(Now.ToLongTimeString)
 

I was under the impression that the TimeLimit property would limit how long the arrange routine ran for, but setting it to 10 (assuming units of seconds) or 10000 (assuming units of milliseconds as per the documentation) doesn't seem to make any difference. Is TimeLimit only working on part of the arrange?

Thanks, Tom

Thanks Stoyan, I'll give those a go.

Hi Stoyan

Is there any chance you could load the attached and see if there is anything slowing down the arrange?  The layout.Arrange(diagram) code takes about six minutes to run for this diagram on my system.

What's odd is that if I filter down the nodes to display a sub selection of the full set of nodes (say all the nodes from 10005 down) then the arrange is basically instant, but when I arrange from the very top down it takes much longer? 

Thanks, Tom

Thanks Stoyan, I'll give that a go.  What is the GetOtherEnd method in that code - could you provide the code for it?

Thanks, Tom

I engaged my brain and guessed that the GetOtherEnd method simply returns whichever node connected to the link that isn't the root which got things working.

The code is really fast now  , but each of the subgraphs is 'upside down' for us, i.e. the arrows go up rather than down for the nodes in the subgraph.  I tried setting ll.Direction = Direction.Straight but that didn't work.  I'm guessing I'm missing something obvious?

Hi Stoyan

Direction.Reversed got it going in the right direction, thanks for that.

I noticed a few more issues that I have tried to illustrate in the attached word doc. The questions I have are:

-      Is there any way to change the order of the sub graph placement so that it is NON, P06, P1, P2 as per the original? Not massively important if not.

-      How can we make the sub graph spacing equal and bigger in the case of e.g. P1 to P2 and P2 to P0 in Figure 4?

-      After we move the P0 node it leaves P0’s links needing to be refreshed so they join centre to centre again between P0 and P1/P2/P06/NON. Think I just need to loop root’s links and call something, but link.Route gave me right angle connector links rather than the diagonal lines link arrows. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks, Tom

Hi Stoyan

That all worked really well, many thanks.