Mind map / flowcharts with automatic layouts that work | Hacker News Reader

Mind map / flowcharts with automatic layouts that work

yworks.com

I've been using this for months now, and it's absolutely incredible.

I waste zero time re-organizing as I create charts, so I don't lose thoughts while trying to make sure the boxes are organized.

TIPS:

* F2 - change the caption on your shape

* F6 - update properties of the shape/connector

* Layouts - experiment with clustering to get cool insights!

How is this superior to draw.io (or the open source library that underpins it)

As far as I saw, draw io dors not do automatic layout. Would be very happy to be proven wrong

The jgraph Java toolkit and mxgraph JavaScript library used in draw.io both support automatic layout even for quite large networks. From the draw.io gui I've never used it but I would be surprised if the possibility does not exist.

draw.io has some automatic layouts (Arrange > Layout), but they are fairly basic. In terms of customizability it doesn't come close to yFiles / yEd. (Admittedly, I'm biased; I work for the latter, but the available layout options do indeed speak for themselves.)

Does it claim to be?

It is an option which may or may not fit the varying needs of readers of HN, just as draw.io is.

Just started playing with this and it looks terrific. Had a bit of trouble figuring out ungrouping once a group is created.

I couldn’t find the price or license on the web site. Is this free? How much does it cost?

yEd is freeware. You can see the license by clicking one of the download links. I guess they monetize it by licensing the underlying diagramming libraries to businesses from the looks of it.

DbVisualizer licenses one of their libraries for its ERD feature: https://www.dbvis.com/images/features/screens/navigator1.png

I’ve been using yEd for about a decade. Any other graph editors pale in comparison.

Isn't resharper using this for the diagrams?

The underlying graph drawing library for WPF, yes. yEd itself is built on the same layouts, but a different rendering platform with Java Swing, of course.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com