We introduce a new approach for drawing diagrams. Our approach is to use a technique we call confluent drawing for visualizing non-planar graphs in a planar way. This approach allows us to draw, in a crossing-free manner, graphs-such as software interaction diagrams-that would normally have many crossings. The main idea of this approach is quite simple: we allow groups of edges to be merged together and drawn as "tracks" (similar to train tracks). Producing such confluent drawings automatically from a graph with many crossings is quite challenging, however, we offer a heuristic algorithm (one version for undirected graphs and one version for directed ones) to test if a non-planar graph can be drawn efficiently in a confluent way. In addition, we identify several large classes of graphs that can be completely categorized as being either confluently drawable or confluently non-drawable.
To visualize non-planar graphs in a planar way and reduce ambiguity, Dickerson et al. REF propose an unambiguous edge bundling called confluent drawing, which allows groups of edges to be merged together and drawn as "tracks" to facilitate tasks where the user needs to follow lines.
Confluent Drawings: Visualizing Non-planar Diagrams in a Planar Way
J. Graph Algorithms Appl.
J. Graph Algorithms Appl.
Mathematics Computer Science