Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout Explained

Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout (MSAGL)
Author:	Lev Nachmanson, Sergey Pupyrev, Tim Dwyer, Ted Hart, Roman Prutkin
Developer:	Microsoft Research
Latest Release Version:	v1.1
Programming Language:	C#
Operating System:	Microsoft Windows
Platform:	.NET Framework
Genre:	Software framework
License:	MIT License

Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout (MSAGL) is a .NET library for automatic graph layout.It was created by Lev Nachmanson at Microsoft Research.^[1]

Earlier versions carried the name GLEE (Graph Layout Execution Engine).^[2]

Contents

The MSAGL software supplies three programming libraries:

• , a device-independent graph layout engine;
• , a device-independent implementation of graphs as graphical user interface objects, with all kinds of graphical attributes, and support for interface events such as mouse actions;
• , a Windows.Forms-based graph viewer control.
• , a WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) based graph viewer control.

A trivial application is supplied to demonstrate the viewer.

Features

MSAGL performs layout based on "principles of the Sugiyama scheme;^[3] it produces so called layered, or hierarchical, layouts" (according to the MSAGL home page). A modified Coffman–Graham scheduling algorithm is then used to find a layout that would fit in a given space. More detailed description of the algorithm can be found in .

At some time, it did not support a wide range of different layout algorithms, unlike, for instance, GraphViz or GUESS.

It does not appear to support incremental layout.^[4]

Availability and licensing

MSAGL is distributed under MIT License as open source at GitHub.^[5]

See also

• graph layout
• Graph algorithms
• Graphviz, an open-source graph drawing system from AT&T

External links

• MSAGL home page
• MSAGL in a browser
• US Patent 7932907

Notes and References

1. Web site: Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout . Microsoft Research.
2. Web site: Visualize Custom Graph with MS Graph Layout Engine . Syncfusion Blogs . 14 August 2018.
3. Web site: Notes on an Implementation of Sugiyama's Scheme. June 2006. Nachmanson. Lev. .
4. Web site: Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout Semantic Scholar . www.semanticscholar.org . en.
5. Web site: Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout. . 17 October 2021.