Automatic Layout and Labelling of State Diagrams

We consider the problem of automatically generating readable layouts for state diagrams. Such diagrams appear in the field of automation engineering in the design process of control systems. Our industrial partner, the Siemens AG, realised that due to the complex nature of these diagrams, automatic layout tools lead to a better design and documentation of control systems.The layout problem turns out to be difficult, since not only a graph drawing problem has to be solved but also an additional labelling problem. In this article we study the combined graph layout and labelling problem and present new results for the two-dimensional compaction problem in graph drawing, the label number maximisation problem and the combined graph labelling problem.