Graph Modeler

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Documentation ​

Graph Modeler™ turns rows of data into a graph. Three things do the work, and the tabs of the app are laid out around them.

The rows are on the Data tab. Each row is an item, or a relationship between two items, or a marker that opens or closes a cluster. A row can name a style.

The styles say how things look, and what they are. A style has a name and a format, and the format is a set of Graphviz attributes such as shape, color and fontname. It also has a description and properties, which do not change the drawing but go into the Knowledge Graph. The Styles tab lists the styles, and the Designer builds one from menus.

The output comes from the rows and the styles together. The app writes them as DOT, the text Graphviz reads, and draws the DOT with Graphviz. It can also publish the same rows as a Knowledge Graph, a JSON file that states what each node and edge is, with its style's description and properties, for programs and AI tools. One model gives you the picture and the data behind it.

Start here ​

The left pane ​

The left pane is on every tab. It has the project buttons, undo and redo, the choice of view, Publish, and the messages about what the app found.

The tabs ​

The tabs are in the order they are in the app.

  • Data: the rows, what each kind of row means, and how to edit them.
  • Diagram: drawing the graph, and the buttons that change the layout.
  • Knowledge Graph: the JSON file for programs and AI tools, and its viewer.
  • DOT: the text Graphviz is given.
  • Designer: building a style from menus, and how pictures inside nodes behave.
  • Styles: the styles, their previews, and views.
  • SQL: building the rows from spreadsheets, CSV files and databases with queries.
  • SVG: post-processing, and why it is a security matter.
  • Settings: the choices that apply to the whole project.
  • About: the version, the credits and the license.

Topics ​

  • Placeholders: the words in braces, such as {label} and {rsc}, that are replaced in labels and in SQL, and how to make your own.
  • Publishing: how a file name is built from the prefix, the template, the counter and the style, and what Publish will not write over.
  • Units and packing: inches or millimeters for the lengths you type, and how the separate parts of a graph are packed together.
  • Fonts: how the app finds the fonts on your computer, what to do after installing one, and what happens to it in a shared picture.
  • Coming from the Excel tool: for people who know Relationship Visualizer, also called Excel to Graphviz.
  • What's new: what each version changed.

What you need ​

Graph Modeler runs on its own. To draw pictures it also needs Graphviz installed, which is free. Without it the tabs that draw say so and offer to look again, and everything else works, including the Knowledge Graph.