Organic layout: option "Node Size Aware"?

Question

Hello,

I am using Organic layout for automatic layout of a large database structure, and it basically works very fine.

However, the algorithm seems not to take into account the "preferred edge length", or it measures edge length from node center to node center.

Now, in this documentation, in the setion "Drawing Style Options", I find that there is an option for this, called "Node Size Aware". However, I cannot find this option in the yEd GUI. What am I doing wrong?

It would be really helpful if could get access to this option somehow! :-)

Thank you very much for this great software!

Philip

BTW: I am using a quick setup of the database tables, fields and properties in Excel and creted a quick&dirty VBA script to generate a gml file which yEd imports and layouts. Works quite beautifully!

 

Answer 1

yEd does not provide a setting for each and every API property of its layout algorithms. And although there is no setting for "Node Size Aware", yEd's organic layout always runs in node size aware mode. (However, "Node Size Aware" is more of a hint than a directive and depending on other settings the algorithm might or might not be able to respect node sizes.)

Comments

OK, thanks for your very quick and detailed answer.
I guess there is no programmatic way for me to change API properties that have not been exposed to the GUI, right?

My problem with the Organic Layout algorithm arises with very short distances between group nodes only. I have been playing around with the setting for a while, but could not get a satisfactory result without quite some handwork...

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No, there is no programmatic way to change API properties in yEd. (Indeed, doing so would be against the yEd Software License Agreement.)
If you are looking for a programming library, the yFiles graph drawing libraries are the way to go.