Add automatic buffer between nodes

[davekinkead]

When a node is added or moved, a minimum buffer between them should be applied so that there is no overlap/collision between nodes.

My first thought would be to iteratively move each node away from the map centre by the amount of overlap + some buffer (say 25px).

#pseudocode 
after node add or move
  while map.overlap? 
    nodes.map => node.overlap?
      node.padout

[geoffreyd]

@davekinkead I've started looking at this, and while there are some simple scenarios, there are also some layouts that become rather complicated.

For instance, if I were to try and pad out the highlighted moving out from the center will end up drawing all of those nodes out into rather long horizontal layout (rather than a smarter algorithm moving them vertically.

How do you feel about pulling in a constraint based layout engine, such as Springy (which gives good control over custom rendering)
(Cola looks better, but much harder to integrate with)

I understand that this would remove some of the custom layouts that users may have spent time on, but we could have an "auto-layout" button that triggers it once, and then lets the user go from there, or a checkbox that turns it on/off.

[davekinkead]

Force directed was what I was thinking of rather than layering in rows & columns. What is the performance hit from something like springy?

[geoffreyd]

I've spent a little time investigating this, performance wise is not an issue, what's been more of an issue is trying to integrate your graph with its graph.
This is something I'd love to show you what I've got and talk about options going forward.

[davekinkead]

Sounds good @geoffreyd did you want to chat around 4pm your time tomorrow?