Hi, I am looking for a tool that will allow me to design graphs (like in "graph theory") I have tried googling but most links that came up deal with graphing as in "plotting" I need to create not-too-complex graphs (~200 nodes max), possibly cyclic and possibly directed, assign properties to each node (an ID at the very least, custom properties would be ideal) and export the result in an easily usable file format (XML, for example) Anyone knows a software to do that? I will consider commercial software, up to a few thousand dollars (not because I will pirate it, but because this is for professional needs). If there is no such software, I will consider rolling out something myself, but I wish I could avoid that. Anything, guys?

Write XML by hand?

This is an unusual question, since graphs are made of some data. There isn't much point in writing in graph information by hand, any more than there is a tool to write trees or lists. Any text editor will to, you either need an indent or a comma.

There are graph processing toolkits which allow processing, and as mandatory part offer a way to create graphs manually as well, Gremlin and neo4j have seen some press recently.

Still, it's an unusual task. For example, a graph can be stored as a 2D array in just about any language, and if you're writing by hand, could just use that.

I also don't understand why plotting isn't acceptable, I'd imagine it's easier to use one of GUI-based tools to draw the graph, rather than enter it by hand.

Dia is a fairly nice FOSS tool that sounds to me like it would fit your needs just fine.

Quote: Original post by Antheus
Write XML by hand?

This is an unusual question, since graphs are made of some data. There isn't much point in writing in graph information by hand, any more than there is a tool to write trees or lists. Any text editor will to, you either need an indent or a comma.

There are graph processing toolkits which allow processing, and as mandatory part offer a way to create graphs manually as well, Gremlin and neo4j have seen some press recently.

Still, it's an unusual task. For example, a graph can be stored as a 2D array in just about any language, and if you're writing by hand, could just use that.

I also don't understand why plotting isn't acceptable, I'd imagine it's easier to use one of GUI-based tools to draw the graph, rather than enter it by hand.

To adress your two questions,
- Why not edit a text file: because I'm not the one creating the graph, it will be a game designer. So it needs to be visual
- Why not use plotting: I may not have use the proper word. For me, plotting is something like this, and I don't see how I could create a graph with that. What does plotting mean, to you? (and probably to most other people :P)

I will take a look to the links posted, thank you

Quote: Original post by janta
- Why not use plotting: I may not have use the proper word. For me, plotting is something like this, and I don't see how I could create a graph with that. What does plotting mean, to you? (and probably to most other people :P)

In that case try yEd.