Please note : This help page is not for the latest version of Enterprise Architect. The latest help can be found here.

Spring Layout

The Spring layout uses a force-directed approach to arrange the selected elements organically.

spring

The Spring layout employs a physical analogy to lay out elements. Each element is treated as a particle with a like electrical charge that repels other elements. Connectors act as springs (hence the term Spring layout) that draw connected elements back together. The layout is good for highlighting clusters of related objects and identifying symmetry in the graph.

How to:

To invoke the Spring layout, follow the steps below:

Step

Action

See Also

1

Follow the general Layout Diagrams procedure, and at step 3 select Spring

Layout Diagrams

2

In the Iterations field, type the number of iterations, or rounds, to perform to reach the final layout

The layout is developed over several iterations; depending on the complexity of the graph, increasing the number of iterations produces a better result but takes longer to calculate

 

3

If the diagram contains elements that significantly vary in size, and that might overlap in the final layout, select the Scale to prevent overlap checkbox to scale up the positions of the selected elements (preserving size) until no elements overlap