Visualization Using Graphviz

Visualization Using Graphviz

QuickGraph supports generating dot files, the file format of Graphviz. All Graphviz related code are located in the QuickGraph.Graphviz.dll assembly.

Basic graph rendering

The GraphvizAlgorithm class contains the logic to render a IVertexAndEdgeListGraph.

• GraphFormat, CommonVertexFormat and CommonEdgeFormat control the default 'looks' of the generated graph,
• FormatVertex and FormatEdge events let you customize the display of individual vertices and edges.

IVertexAndEdgeListGraph<TVertex,TEdge> g= ...;
var graphviz = new GraphvizAlgorithm<TVertex,TEdge>(g);

// render
string output = graphviz.Generate(new FileDotEngine(), "graph");

Custom Rendering of Dot

QuickGraph sends the generated dot code to a 'dot engine' interface which is supposed to do the rest of the work. This is where you can plugin and add any additional steps. QuickGraph provides a simple rendering engine that writes the dot file to disk :)

public interface IDotEngine
{
    // renders the dot code and returns the name of the generated file
    string Run(
        GraphvizImageType imageType,
        string dot,
        string outputFileName);
}