Need a visual control to visualise logical "A follows B" or "A depends on B and C" and such relationships

Question

I want to present on screen information about certain amount of events, each having a set of logical statements like "if X and Y then this event happens". Therefore, i need a control that would display some sort of objects (boxes?) that are connected. Like:

Event1  ---------------(occurs after)----------> Event 2           Event 3
   \                                                                 /
    \                                                               /
  (occurs 10 seconds after)                             (occurs 5 seconds after)       
     \                                                            /
     Event 2 --------------------(occurs after)--------------->Event 4
       \                                                        /
        \___________________            _______________________/
                            \          /
                              Event 5

So i can add objects to this control and tell which object should be conncected to which and that should be written near the connection. Also, there should be events when user clicks on an object.

Preferably, but not required, user should be able to move objects around inside the control (position them how he likes)

What i need should supposedly be called "Graph control" but not Graph as a visualisation of a function, but Graph as a mathematical term from Graphs theory - a set of points and lines connecting them.

I'm using VS 2010 Ultimate if it matters.

PS: I think i'll end up using GLEE for now. Its very simple to use and i think it can let me do what i need. If you know anything else of use - please suggest. But i didnt find anything else that is as simple as GLEE to use, an i looked through alot now. Graph# is great but its only for WPF and i'm working with Forms...

Google for GraphWiz may help you, if you're interested in graphs; makes good visualizations also. — Anton, Mar 28 '12 at 14:52
Take a look at this: [https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/D3BEB670-6687-44A3-8D98-A3862DEEEE10](https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/D3BEB670-6687-44A3-8D98-A3862DEEEE10) — , Apr 15 '15 at 08:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

1

GoDiagram is a commercial product I had achance of testing it alittle and found it very good http://www.nwoods.com/components/dotnet/godiagram-overview.htm

see also Free or Open Source Diagramming Component for Winforms

edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

Community

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answered Mar 28 '12 at 15:18

Alex

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '12 at 07:10

If you are looking for a more powerful (IMHO) control, you might take a look at the commercial yFiles library which targets Windows Forms specifically. It offers sophisticated automatic layout algorithms and a very flexible viewer and editor.

What you are looking for is called "hierarchic layout" or "sugiyama layout". The library implements that algorithm: See the online documentation for the hierarchical layout. If you haven't done so yet, you can evaluate the software package first, to see what it can do.

For a quick interactive demo, you can take a look at the online demos, specifically the BPMN demo, although this is a Silverlight demo, the algorithm is the same as in the WinForms library.

ABH · Answer 3 · 2012-03-28T14:10:25.457

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May be Devcomponents can help you. Does TreeGX suites your requirement?

Also check this link

edited Mar 28 '12 at 14:10

answered Mar 28 '12 at 13:45

ABH

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I am affraid not, since that is a tree, and i need a graph (it may happen that green is "inside" black, for example, or Gut follows from Feelings AND Analytic, on that screenshot of theirs). Also, they seem to cost really a lot, are those controls free for non-profit purposes? "Fully functional free trial" sounds very vague, since trial is by definition limited in some way... – Istrebitel Mar 28 '12 at 14:04
Check this http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattm/archive/2008/12/30/ezapi-alternative-package-creation-api.aspx – ABH Mar 28 '12 at 14:10
Well, thats what i'd like it to look like, but i believe the link is for a program that automates creating SSIS packages, not replicates the interface used by BIDS when you edit the SSIS package... What i need i an interface like that of BDIS for SSIS packages. – Istrebitel Mar 28 '12 at 14:15

Need a visual control to visualise logical "A follows B" or "A depends on B and C" and such relationships

3 Answers3