Automatic Layout Techniques for the Graphical Editor in the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS)

The Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) is a systems engineering tool intended to make the iterative process of software development more efficient. The simplest way to input and modify a CAPS design is through the graphical editor. When a design is modified over and over, the resultant graphical representation can become difficult to comprehend. Trying to change the graphical representation by hand can be very tedious. By adding automatic layout techniques to the graphical editor, this task is made easier for the user of the system. Automatic layout techniques for general graphs that maximize all of the aesthetic characteristics of a graph are not possible. One characteristic may conflict with another. By giving the user multiple layout algorithms that emphasis different characteristics over others, the user may choose between different layouts for the graphical representation. Since CAPS was in the middle of a restructure and no graphical editor was available, automatic layout techniques were investigated using other graphical editors. Graphs with characteristics similar to a CAPS graph were input into the graphical editors and then the layout algorithms applied. The results of this assessment proved that the addition of automatic layout techniques to CAPS would improve performance. The library of layout algorithms will be incorporated into the new graphical editor in CAPS.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Automatic Layout Techniques for the Graphical Editor in the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS)' with ISBN 9781423564416 and ISBN 1423564413.