NAME¶
socnetv - Visualize and analyze social networks
SYNOPSIS¶
socnetv <
file.net >
socnetv -V | --version
socnetv -h | --help
DESCRIPTION¶
Social Networks Visualiser (SocNetV) is a flexible and user-friendly tool for
Social Networks Analysis and Visualisation. It lets you construct networks
(mathematical graphs) with a few clicks on a virtual canvas or load networks
of various formats (GraphViz, GraphML, Adjacency, Pajek, etc) and modify them
to suit your needs.
The application can compute basic network properties, such as density, diameter
and distances (shortest path lengths), as well as more advanced structural
statistics, such as node and network centralities (i.e. closeness, betweeness,
graph), clustering coefficient, etc.
It supports various layout algorithms (i.e. Spring-embedder, circular and in
levels according to various centrality indeces) for meaningful visualisations
of social networks. Furthermore, random networks (Erdos-Renyi, Watts-Strogatz,
ring lattice, etc) can be created with a few clicks.
SocNetV is being developed in C++ with the Qt GUI development toolkit. Qt is the
only dependency.
OPTIONS¶
- --version | -V
- Displays the version of the program.
- --help | -H
- Displays a short help message.
- file.net
- The name of the file you want to open.
USAGE¶
SocNetV has a simple Graphical User Interface (GUI). The biggest (right) part of
the window is occupied by a virtual "canvas" where network nodes and
edges appear. To the left of it, there is a dock with 4 buttons (add/remove
node, add/remove link) and some LCDs which display statistics. On the top of
the window, you will find the menu with all commands and options, and at the
bottom there is a status bar, where messages appear.
To create a new node, you can double-click on the canvas or click on the
"add node" button.
To create a new link, you can middle-click on the source node and then on the
target node. Alternatively, you can click on the "add link" button
from the dock.
You move a node by left-clicking and dragging it. When you right-click on a
node, a context menu appears. From there you can remove the node, change its
color, label, size as well as its shape. SocNetV supports many kinds of node
shapes, i.e rectangles, diamond, ellipse, circle, etc. A similar menu appears
when you right click on a link.
Supported Formats
SocNetV supports many network formats, i.e. GraphViz (.dot), GraphML (.graphml),
Pajek (.net), Adjacency matrix (.net, .txt). You can load these kinds of files
by clicking on menu File > Load or by specifying them explicitly at the
command line. SocNetV uses simple inspection routines to check the format of
the given file. In most cases, it will load the file, no matter what the file
extension is.
Layout algorithms
SocNetV also supports a variety of layout algorithms, such as spring-embedder
(i.e. energy based) and centralities-based. The latter reposition all nodes in
circles of different radiuses (i.e. more central nodes appear near the centre
of the canvas) or in levels of different height (more central nodes appear
near to the top).
You can apply layout algorithms from the menu Layout or by clicking on the
checkboxes on the dock. Not all layouts appear on the dock, though.
KNOWN BUGS¶
The network file parser is not 100% trustworthy. For instance, complicated Pajek
or GraphML files can crash the application.
Antialiasing is off by default to boost the speed of node movement. You can
enable antialiasing by pressing F8.
AUTHOR¶
Dimitris Kalamaras <dimitris.kalamaras@gmail.com>
BUG REPORTS¶
Report bugs to
https://bugs.launchpad.net/socnetv. In order to send a meaningful
bug report, run
socnetv from a terminal, press F9 and repeat the steps
which lead to bug manifestation. SocNetV will be printing debug messages on
the standard output (the terminal in Linux).
AVAILABILITY¶
The latest version of this program can be found at
<
http://socnetv.sourceforge.net>. It is distributed in source code and
binary packages for Linux distributions. It can also compile and run in OS X
and Windows.
To get the latest development version use: svn co
https://socnetv.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/socnetv/trunk
COPYRIGHT¶
This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License 3
as published by the Free Software Foundation
<
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. See the built-in help for
details on the License and the lack of warranty.
SEE ALSO¶
graphviz(1)