A Fast Multi-Scale Method for Drawing Large Graphs

Abstract

We present a multi-scale layout algorithm for the aesthetic drawing of undirected graphs with straight-line edges. The algorithm is extremely fast, and is capable of drawing graphs of substantially larger size than any other algorithm we are aware of. For example, the algorithm achieves optimal drawings of 1000 vertex graphs in about 2 seconds. The paper contains graphs with over 6000 nodes. The proposed algorithm embodies a new multi-scale scheme for drawing graphs, which was motivated by the recently published multi-scale algorithm of Hadany and Harel [7]. It can significantly improve the speed of essentially any force-directed method (regardless of that method's ability of drawing weighted graphs or the continuity of its cost-function).