Type: Questions & Answers

The yFiles diagramming library provides a variety of automatic layout algorithms that suit many different application areas. The following table lists the layout algorithms that qualify for automatic layout calculation of UML diagram types.
 

UML Diagram Type	Layout Algorithm(s)	Notes
Class Diagram	IncrementalHierarchicLayouter DirectedOrthogonalLayouter	The yFiles source code demo application UMLClassDiagramLayouterDemo.java shows how to use DirectedOrthogonalLayouter for class diagrams.
Use Case Diagram	SmartOrganicLayouter IncrementalHierarchicLayouter
Component Diagram	IncrementalHierarchicLayouter OrthogonalLayouter OrthogonalGroupLayouter	If you want to highlight dependencies, use IncrementalHierarchicLayouter. If the directedness of the relationships is of no concern, use OrthogonalLayouter or OrthogonalGroupLayouter.
State Diagram	SmartOrganicLayouter IncrementalHierarchicLayouter OrthogonalLayouter	If edge labels are involved that need to be placed nicely, use IncrementalHierarchicLayouter or OrthogonalLayouter.
Activity Diagram	IncrementalHierarchicLayouter
Deployment Diagram	IncrementalHierarchicLayouter OrthogonalGroupLayouter
Profile Diagram	IncrementalHierarchicLayouter
Composite Structure Diagram	IncrementalHierarchicLayouter

 

The layout algorithms listed in the table are discussed in the yFiles for Java Developer's Guide in the following sections:

• IncrementalHierarchicalLayouter
• SmartOrganicLayouter
• OrthogonalLayouter
• OrthogonalGroupLayouter
• DirectedOrthogonalLayouter