graphviz - top-down subgraphs, left-right inside subgraphs

Question

I'd like to have my graph looks like this:

But I can only get this:

The problem is, rankdir does not work in subgraph. So, how to emulate it?

The code:

digraph G {
    node [shape = circle]
    0 [style = invis]

    0 -> "0A"

    subgraph clusterA {
        label=A
        "0A"
        "1A"
        "2A" -> "0A" [label=?]
    }

    subgraph clusterB {
        label=B
        "0B"
        "1B"
        "2B" -> "0B" [label=?]
    }

        subgraph clusterC {
        label=C
        "0C"
        "1C"
        "2C" -> "0C" [label=?]
    }

    subgraph clusterD {
        label=D
        "0D"
        "1D"
        "2D" -> "0D" [label=?]
    }

    subgraph clusterE {
        label=E
        "0E"
        "1E"
        "2E" -> "0E" [label=?]
    }

    subgraph clusterF {
        label=F
            {node [shape = doublecircle] "0F" "1F"}
        "2F" -> "0F" [label=?]
    }

    "0A" -> "1B" [label=a]
    "1A" -> "2B" [label=a]
    "0B" -> "1C" [label=b]
    "1B" -> "2C" [label=b]
    "0C" -> "1D" [label=c]
    "1C" -> "2D" [label=c]
    "0D" -> "1E" [label=d]
    "1D" -> "2E" [label=d]
    "0E" -> "1F" [label=e]
    "1E" -> "2F" [label=e]
}

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7777722/top-down-subgraphs-left-right-inside-subgraphs

Answer 1

Reproducing particular graph layouts usually can be achieved with:

• Invisible nodes and edges
• rank constraints

Here's how I reproduced your graph - or at least a part of it:

digraph g {
    rankdir="LR";
    node[shape = circle, fontsize=14];
    fontsize=18;
    labeljust="l";

    edge[style=invis, fontsize=12];

    { rank=same;
        0 [style = invis];
        01 [style = invis];
        02 [style=invis];
        0 -> 01 -> 02;
    }

    subgraph clusterA {
        "0A" -> "1A" -> "2A";
        "2A" -> "0A" [label=".", constraint=false, style=solid];
        label="A";
    }

    subgraph clusterB {
        "0B" -> "1B" -> "2B";
        "2B" -> "0B" [label=".", constraint=false, style=solid];
        label="B";
    }

    subgraph clusterC {
        "0C" -> "1C" -> "2C";
        "2C" -> "0C" [label=".", constraint=false, style=solid];
        label="C";
    }

    0 -> "0A"[style=solid];
    01 -> "0B"[style=invis];
    02 -> "0C"[style=invis];

    // edges between clusters
    edge[constraint=false, style=solid];
    "0A" -> "1B" [label=a]
    "1A" -> "2B" [label=a]
    "0B" -> "1C" [label=b]
    "1B" -> "2C" [label=b]
}

This solution is not very intuitive. A couple of points to achieve this:

• I chose rankdir="LR" which resulted in nicer edges than TB, though it does not really correspond with the direction of the graph
• Invisible nodes and edges are use for the top rank nodes (0, 01, 02) in order to have the clusters align left.
• The (invisible) top nodes are forced to the same rank and are linked by invisible edges - this will ensure that the clusters linked to each node appear in the correct order.

The result is: