Patent ID: 7714862

Claim:
A system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method of: receiving data associated with nodes for graphically displaying the nodes; assigning hierarchical levels to the nodes based on the data associated with the nodes; clustering the nodes according to the hierarchical levels to assign the nodes to bands, at least one of the bands corresponding to a range of coordinates; performing a constrained stress minimization on the data, wherein the constrained stress minimization is subject to hierarchical constraints based on the bands and computes x-coordinates and y-coordinates of the nodes; and outputting results of the constrained stress minimization on a visual medium, whereby symmetric nodes within a cycle that are assigned to the at least one of the bands are outputted on the visual medium with one of x-coordinates and y-coordinates of the symmetric nodes all being within the range of coordinates of the at least one of the bands and including different coordinate values.