UniMod articles

Consider the problem of automatically generating layouts for state diagrams (statecharts). Such diagrams appear in automation engeneering and CASE tools. Automatic layout of these diagrams leads to better understanding and saves time spend on their development.

State diagram layout problem seems to have some differences from general graph layout problem. In this article adaptation of two graph layout algorithms to state diagrams layout problem is described. Results of this work are used in UniMod for diagram layout.

Force-directed method is adapted to work with state diagrams and extended with orthogonalization step. Orthogonal layout algorithm for drawing nonplanar graphs is also adapted to work with state diagrams.

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