Dark Energy and Layers

Press [1] for Dark Energy, our auto-arrange, which spreads your graph out by how it's connected. [4] stacks it in Layers, and [5] gathers it into Groups.

Where: Space Studio › Bottom toolbar, the first three buttons · Keys: [1], [4], [5]

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What it is

Three arrangements of the same structure, each a click or a key away. You can arrange nodes by hand, but you'll increasingly lean on these to do it for you. Dark Energy and Group animate into place, Layers moves in one step, and each is a step you can undo, so trying one on a graph you've arranged by hand costs nothing.

How to use it

Dark Energy [1]

Dark Energy is the physics of the graph. In astrophysics, dark energy is the mysterious force that accelerates the universe's expansion. Here it spreads everything out and works against your connectors, so the structure bursts outward along its branches and settles into a web. A node with many connections pushes its neighbours well out, and a connector to a dead end pulls in close, so spacing tracks how connected each thing is.

It doesn't always nail it first try. Click it again for a fresh take, until you find a layout you like.

Layers [4]

Layers is a different way to see the same system. It stacks nodes in rows by classification, in the order your classifications sit in the Left Panel, so dragging a classification up or down there moves its row. Press it again to try another arrangement within the rows.

Group [5]

Group gathers each classification into a cluster of its own, a quick way to see how much of each kind of thing you have.

Just part of the graph

Select some nodes first, with Ctrl+drag or Ctrl+click, and the arrangement works on those alone, leaving the rest exactly where it was. Dark Energy and Group need two or more selected for this. Layers works on a selection of any size. The tooltip says how many it will arrange.

Pinned nodes always stay where they are. See Nodes.

The focused layout

Highlight a classification or connector type in the left panel, then press Dark Energy. The highlighted nodes are arranged on their own first, then held in place while everything else spreads out around them. Hover over Dark Energy first and its tooltip says Dark Energy: highlighted first.

This is for when something's buried, such as a process of a dozen steps tangled into a structure of a few hundred nodes. Highlight it, press Dark Energy, and the steps come out as a clean run with everything else arranged around them. With nothing highlighted, Dark Energy is the ordinary spread. See Highlighting.

Tips

• All three work in 2D or 3D, so 2D, 3D, Dark Energy and Layers combine freely. Click 2D, then Dark Energy, to spread everything out flat. See 2D and 3D.
• The camera moves to fit the result as it arranges.
• Whichever arrangement you last ran on the whole graph is the one the live physics and the Forces sliders keep to. See Forces.
• If a graph feels dense, Layers gives you a structured hierarchy instead of a free-form web, which is easier to read when there's a lot of it.

How this helps you

• Use Dark Energy after adding a batch of nodes, or importing a diagram, to give them a place.
• Use the focused layout to pull one process or one kind of relationship out of a tangle.
• Use Layers when your classifications have an order, such as strategy, programmes, projects, tasks.
• Use Group to see the balance of your project by kind.

Related

• Forces: the sliders that shape the spread, and live physics.
• Highlighting: what to light before a focused layout.
• Classifications: the order Layers stacks in.
• 2D and 3D: flat or deep.