Patent ID: 8533738

Claim:
A computer-readable memory medium comprising program instructions for positioning objects in a graphical data flow program, wherein the program instructions are executable to: display the graphical data flow program on a display, wherein the graphical data flow program includes a plurality of nodes interconnected by connections that visually indicate flow of data to occur among the nodes during execution of the graphical data flow program, wherein the plurality of interconnected nodes visually indicate functionality to be performed by the graphical data flow program during the execution, wherein displaying the graphical data flow program comprises displaying the plurality of interconnected nodes in a block diagram on the display; receive user input selecting a first portion of the graphical data flow program to be excluded from re-arrangement, wherein a second portion of the graphical data flow program is not selected by the user input, wherein a first subset of the plurality of interconnected nodes are included in the first portion, wherein a second subset of the plurality of interconnected nodes are included in the second portion; automatically re-arrange the graphical data flow program, wherein re-arranging the graphical data flow program comprises: automatically re-positioning the nodes included in the second portion to new positions in the block diagram, wherein re-positioning the nodes included in the second portion includes changing their relative positioning with respect to each other, wherein the new positions are not determined based on user input specifying positioning information for the new positions; and automatically re-positioning the nodes included in the first portion to new positions in the block diagram while retaining their same relative positioning with respect to each other; and re-display the graphical data flow program after re-arranging the graphical data flow program, wherein re-displaying the graphical data flow program comprises displaying nodes included in the first portion of the graphical data flow program at their same relative positioning with respect to each other and displaying nodes included in the second portion of the graphical data flow program at changed positions relative to each other.