Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7-15:
In the main Gephi window, the visualization is surrounded
by a wide variety of interactive tools.
Interactive Layout
At the core of graph visualization, graph layout is often a challenging
problem. Gephi provides force-directed layout algorithms (such as Force
Atlas and Fruchterman-Reingold), with which you can interact while they
are running. Furthermore, you can apply different layouts, with each
starting where the previous left off. Adjusting layouts while the layout
algorithm is still running can be extremely useful in many situations,
including the following:
•
Tweaking parameters
—Are nodes spreading out too much? Increase
the gravity and see the nodes start drifting closer together. Did you
increase gravity too much? Tweak it again.
•
Moving a node
—Is there a node tangled in with some others? Drag it
off to the side. Repeat as necessary to untangle portions of the graph.
•
Moving many nodes
—By default, dragging affects the node
immediately under the tip of the cursor. Adjust
selection size
, which
enables you to select and move a region of nodes easily. First, to drag,
select the hand icon in the selection tools. To adjust the size of the
dragging, click the word “Dragging” immediately above in the selection
