Caesar Automatic Layout of UML Class Diagrams

UML diagrams have become increasingly important in the engineering and reengineering processes for software systems. Of particular interest are UML class diagrams whose purpose is to display class hierarchies (generalizations), associations, aggregations, and compositions in one picture. The combination of hierarchical and non-hierarchical relations poses a special challenge to a graph layout tool. Commercial software typically uses Sugiyama-style methods, see, e.g., [1] that cannot properly distinguish between hierarchical and non-hierarchical relations. The caesar garph drawing group develops and implements a library of algoirthms and data structures for graph drawing. Special emphasis is on the layout of UML class diagrams