Geometric Layouts Geometric layouts let you arrange all nodes or selected nodes in a Line, Grid, Cube, Circle, Sphere, Spiral, or Spring ordered by one of the property values in the data. The edges between nodes continue to be displayed. Geometric layouts help you highlight patterns quickly, and make it easier to select groups of nodes for further inspection, labeling, and analysis. In addition, you can: Distribute selected nodes in an X, Y, or Z direction ordered by a property value. This is useful for grouping data by date and time or other numerical or categorical property values. Align nodes along the virtual X, Y, and Z axes of the project space. Rotate, Scale, and Shift nodes in the project space by specified amounts for fine control of layouts. Apply Ring or Tree layouts around selected central nodes, and specify the depth of the hierarchy and the relative length of the edges. You can combine layouts in a variety of ways. The layout shown above uses a Grid layout for one of the categories of nodes (Location), and then applies a Ring layout to the nodes of a different category (Photos) which are connected by one edge to the nodes in the grid. To share a static image of a layout, you can select Screenshot from the Export menu at the top right corner of the project canvas (or click the Take Screenshot icon in the toolbar). A .png screenshot of the project space is downloaded that includes just the data and the legend (not the toolbar, panel menu, panel or any other UI elements). Apply a geometric layout You can apply one of the named geometric layouts, either to all the data or to any selection. You can use Undo in the toolbar (or Ctrl + Z) to revert a layout operation. To apply a geometric layout: Open the Layout panel and Geometric tab. Select nodes to lay out using any method. Often, you’ll want to use the lists in the legend to select all the nodes of a given category or tag. If no nodes are selected, the layout is applied to all the data. Optionally, order the nodes in a geometric layout by a property values available in the selected data. In the Layout section, click the Order by property checkbox to display its Category and Property dropdown menus. Select the category and property name you want. Click the Ascend or Descend checkbox to display the nodes in either ascending or descending order. Now click the Line, Grid, Cube, Circle, Sphere, Spiral, or Spring button to display the data in that layout. In the example below, nodes of the House category are in a Circle layout, ordered by their houseName property value. The nodes are still selected after you apply the layout. You can move them as group and further adjust the orientation, size, and position using Rotate, Scale, and Shift layout controls. Distribute nodes by a property value Distribution uses one of the property values in a selection of data to group the nodes and distribute the groups on the canvas along the X, Y, or Z direction. With Distribution, you can group data quickly by any date, numerical or categorical property value. To distribute nodes by a property value: Select nodes to to be grouped and distributed, for example, using the legend to select all nodes of a given category. Click the Spread Out checkbox to enter a scale Range by which the groups of nodes will be distributed on the project canvas. Click the Distribution option’s Order by Property checkbox to display Category and Property dropdown menus. Select the category and property you want. Click the Ascend or Descend checkbox to display the distributed groups in either ascending or descending order. Click either Number, Date, or Categorical checkboxes, depending on the value of the property you selected. Now click the X, Y, or Z button to group and distribute the selected data. In the example below, Photos nodes are distributed on the canvas along the X axis by their Ratings property values (1 to 5). You can further adjust distributed groups using Rotate, Scale, and Shift layout controls. Align nodes Align projects selected nodes from 3 dimensions to either a 2-dimensional line, or a 1-dimensional stack on the project canvas, as follows: X aligns nodes on the Y and Z axes Y aligns nodes on the X and Z axes Z aligns nodes on the X and Y axes Once you have aligned nodes to two axes, clicking one of the other buttons aligns all nodes in a single straight line on the remaining axis. Clicking the remaining button stacks all the nodes on top of one another at the viewpoint origin. If an align action isn’t what you expect, you can click Undo (or Ctrl +Z), or click *_Release in the Layout section to return nodes to a force layout. For example, we can see that distributed Photo nodes ordered by Rating are still somewhat scattered on the canvas. We can use Align to project the groups onto the virtual X- and Z- axis in straight lines. To align nodes: Select the nodes to be aligned (e.g. our distributed Photos). Click Y to align on the X- and Z- axes. Rotate, Scale, and Shift a Layout You can move the nodes in a layout as a group, and you can further adjust the orientation, size, and position using Rotate, Scale, and Shift layout controls. You can select any group of nodes. If no data are selected, the controls operate on all the data. You can: Rotate separately along the X, Y, or Z axes, for fine-tuned control of 3D orientation. Enter a number of degrees to rotate the layout (either a positive or negative value), then click Rotate X, Rotate Y, or Rotate Z buttons. Scale a selection (or the entire layout). You can either expand or contract the scale, and choose to scale along X, Y, and/or Z axes as well. Enter a Scale factor, select axes using the checkboxes, then click Expand or Contract. For example, you can expand the scale for data displayed in a line, and contract the scale for other data displayed in circles or grids. Shift data on the X, Y, or Z axis to separate selected data visually in the graph space. Enter a Shift factor (either a positive or negative value) and click X, Y, or Z. Apply a Ring or Tree Hierarchical Layout With Ring or Tree hierarchical layouts, you select a node (or nodes) as central points, and neighboring nodes are automatically arranged according to the number of edges (or hops) away they are from the centers. Ring or tree hierarchies greatly aid visualization when combined with another geometric layout, such as Grid: Ring or tree layouts are also useful for geospatial display around the central data nodes with lat-long coordinates dropped onto a map. You can: Set the Ego Depth of the hierarchy (i.e. the number hops from the selected central nodes to include). The default depth of 100 will typically include all the data since most graphs will not have more than 100 connections. For example, with an Ego depth of 3, nodes NOT selected as centers AND three edges away are included. Nodes further away remain in the original force layout. Set the relative Length of the connecting edges. The default length of 0.4 is suitable for many graphs. Order the data in rings or trees by a property value. Orient rings or trees. Use the Left, Right, Up or Down checkboxes to rotate or reflect the connected rings or reposition trees around the central nodes. To display a hierarchical ring or tree layout: Select nodes of primary interest as your center nodes. In this example from a contact tracing dataset, we select all Infected_Person nodes, laid out in a grid ordered by the number of connections for each node. Now scroll down to the Scale option and click the Expand button several times to expand the grid layout. This makes room to arrange first- and second- level contacts in rings (or trees) around the central nodes. With the central Infected_Person nodes still selected, enter optional controls for the hierarchical Ego layout. For example, click Order by Property, and select the Category and Property that will be used to order the nodes in the ring or tree layout. Click the Ring or Tree button. With a default Ego depth of 100, nodes NOT selected as centers AND 100 edges away are displayed in either: Concentric rings around the central nodes. Tree layouts to the right of the central nodes. With the central Infected_Person nodes still selected, you can change any of the layout controls, then click the Ring or Tree button again. Selecting and moving the central nodes does not move the nodes in rings or trees. After moving central nodes, you can re-apply the ring or tree layout to restore the hierarchical pattern. Create Quick Layouts The Quick Layout toolbar icon displays a menu to quickly apply and modify pre-set geometric layouts to all or part of your data. This menu is also provided on the right-click context menu under Layout. You can select items on the menu to: Apply a Line, Grid, Cube, Circle, Spiral, or Spring layout to any selection of nodes. Apply a Ring or Tree hierarchical layout. You can select central nodes first, but it is not required. If you apply the layout to all the data, GraphXR will determine the nodes most likely to be central. For simpler graph patterns, selecting central nodes first may not make a difference. Expand or Contract the layout of any selection of nodes. Rotate the selected layout by a preset 90 degrees. With Quick Layout you cannot order nodes by property value, distribute nodes, specify controlled Shift or Rotate actions, or enter specifications for a Ring or Tree layout. You can, however, reposition selected nodes using navigation controls (e.g left-click drag to shift or right-click drag to rotate.) To create a Quick Layout: Select nodes using any selection method and click the Quick Layout toolbar icon to display the quick layout menu. Select one of the quick layout options (for example Line). With the nodes still selected, you can click Expand or Contract on the menu to adjust the size of the layout, or Rotate to rotate its orientation by 90 degrees. If you need to make room for hierarchical rings or trees in an initial geometric layout, expand the layout first, then apply the additional hierarchical layout. With the nodes still selected, choose Ring or Tree. Selecting Expand or Contract in the above ring layout expands only the layout of the selected central nodes, not the rings.