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)