Spring-Embedder produces layouts having uniform distribution of nodes by simulating a physical system in which nodes repulse each other and the links between them act as confining springs. Nodes are moved around in an iterative process. The forces that act on a node are calculated, taking in account the positions of surrounding nodes and links from the previous iteration.

To apply this layout to a diagram, call the arrange method of a SpringLayout instance.

If the LayoutTraits value associated with a node through SpringLayoutTraits.Frozen is true, SpringLayout considers the repulsion forces exerted by the node on other nodes, but ignores forces acting on the node and keeps it in place.

The final appearance of arranged graphs depends mostly on the values of EnableClusters and NodeDistance properties that specify how nodes are distributed by the layout routine. Enabling the MinimizeCrossings property helps to decrease the number of link crossings, though that makes the algorithm run somewhat slower.

The layout routine runs as much iterations as set in IterationCount, calculating better node positions at each step. When that stage of the algorithm completes, if Anchoring is enabled, link ends are aligned to nodes' anchor points.

The Spring-Embedder layout algorithm produces best results if it can place link ends at arbitrary positions over nodes' outlines, that is, when using the Ignore value. If your application logic requires links to be always attached to anchor points, use the other two values. In such cases Reassign would yield better results.

java.lang.Object
    com.mindfusion.diagramming.SpringLayout

SpringLayout Members
com.mindfusion.diagramming Namespace