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¹Universität Tübingen, Germany

²Research Center Caesar, Bonn, Germany

³University of Cologne, Germany

⁴Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

Correspondence to: Petra Mutzel, Vienna University of Technology, Favoritenstrae 9-11 E186, A-1040 Wien, Austria. Tel: +43 1 58801 18614; Fax: +43 1 58801 18699; E-mail: mutzel@ads.tuwien.ac.at

Unified modelling language (UML) diagrams have become increasingly important in engineering and re-engineering processes for software systems. Of particular interest are UML class diagrams whose purpose is to display generalizations, associations, aggregations, and compositions in one picture. The combination of directed and undirected relations poses a special challenge to a graph layout tool. Current approaches for the automatic layout of class diagrams are based on the layered graph drawing paradigm. These algorithms produce good results for class diagrams with large and deep structural information, that is, diagrams with a large and deep inheritance hierarchy. However, they do not perform satisfactorily in absence of this information.

We suggest to use the topology-shape¾metrics paradigm for automatic layout of class diagrams, which has been used very successfully for drawing undirected graphs in orthogonal style. Moreover, we introduce the algorithms UML-Kandinsky and GoVisual fitting into this paradigm. Both algorithms work for class diagrams with rich structural information as well as for class diagrams with few or no structural information. Therefore, they improve the existing algorithms significantly.

Information Visualization (2004) 3, 189-208. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ivs.9500078
Published online 22 July 2004

Software visualization; graph drawing; graph layout; UML class diagram