Stabilization

[eljeffeg]

First off, great piece of software.

It would be nice to add some stabilization parameter, so that it stops calculating the force directed layout. Perhaps it restarts if a node is moved, then stops again when it stabilizes. Problem is.. if you leave the graph open in a browser tab, it continues to consume CPU. My box is almost currently flat lined as it continues to process a layout that's stable.

Admittedly, I haven't looked to see if I can put a cap on the iterations, so this may just be my fault. :)

[anvaka]

Thank you Jeff!

Yes, the renderer monitors user input and restarts layout whenever user drags a node or graph is modified, this is by design. You can stop the renderer at any point of time with renderer.pause() method. Would this be enough? Or do you need to permanently stop layout?

[eljeffeg]

Oh, so the layout will stop on its own after a period of time? That works... I thought it just kept on going with no limit on the number of iterations. :)

[anvaka]

Yes, layout stops if algorithm's parameters are chosen properly for particular graph. The renderer notices little movement of the nodes and stops layout cycle. But with certain parameters the system will never find it's energy minimum, and will keep bouncing nodes on the surface. For this case it's a good practice to let user pause cycle manually. It's the reason why renderer.pause() method exists :)