neato

neato is a reasonable default tool to use for undirected graphs that aren't too large (about 100 nodes), when you don't know anything else about the graph.

neato attempts to minimize a global energy function, which is equivalent to statistical multi-dimensional scaling.

The solution is achieved using stress majorization¹, though the older Kamada-Kawai algorithm², using steepest descent, is also available, by switching mode.

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Attributes for neato features

• Damping – Factor damping force motions.. Valid on: Graphs.
• defaultdist – The distance between nodes in separate connected components. Valid on: Graphs.
• dim – Set the number of dimensions used for the layout. Valid on: Graphs.
• dimen – Set the number of dimensions used for rendering. Valid on: Graphs.
• diredgeconstraints – Whether to constrain most edges to point downwards. Valid on: Graphs.
• epsilon – Terminating condition. Valid on: Graphs.
• esep – Margin used around polygons for purposes of spline edge routing. Valid on: Graphs.
• inputscale – Scales the input positions to convert between length units. Valid on: Graphs.
• len – Preferred edge length, in inches. Valid on: Edges.
• levelsgap – strictness of neato level constraints. Valid on: Graphs.
• maxiter – Sets the number of iterations used. Valid on: Graphs.
• mode – Technique for optimizing the layout. Valid on: Graphs.
• model – Specifies how the distance matrix is computed for the input graph. Valid on: Graphs.
• normalize – normalizes coordinates of final layout. Valid on: Graphs.
• notranslate – Whether to avoid translating layout to the origin point. Valid on: Graphs.
• overlap – Determines if and how node overlaps should be removed. Valid on: Graphs.
• overlap_scaling – Scale layout by factor, to reduce node overlap.. Valid on: Graphs.
• pin – Keeps the node at the node's given input position. Valid on: Nodes.
• pos – Position of node, or spline control points. Valid on: Edges, Nodes.
• scale – Scales layout by the given factor after the initial layout. Valid on: Graphs.
• sep – Margin to leave around nodes when removing node overlap. Valid on: Graphs.
• start – Parameter used to determine the initial layout of nodes. Valid on: Graphs.
• voro_margin – Tuning margin of Voronoi technique. Valid on: Graphs.