Routing drawings in diagram displays

We are interested in the problem of how to lay out practical graphs where nodes vary in shape and size. Applying classical graph drawing algorithms to practical graphs may result in overlapping nodes and/or edge node intersections. This is because such algorithms were often originally designed for abstract graphs where nodes take up little or no space. To make use of such algorithms for practical graphs, we need some post processes to adjust a layout by avoiding overlapping nodes and edge node intersections. A technique for disjoint node images has been developed. We analyse several criteria and present a method for routing drawings in diagram displays. Our method has proved to be quite successful in practice