# Development scripts/tips location?

**URL:** <https://forum.graphviz.org/t/development-scripts-tips-location/3320>\
**Category:** Dev\
**Created:** [March 9, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/development-scripts-tips-location/3320 "2026-03-09T18:37:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 12

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**Author:** ![steveroush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@steveroush](https://forum.graphviz.org/u/steveroush)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/development-scripts-tips-location/3320/12 "2026-03-11T19:36:42Z")

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Some _step-by-step_ thoughts & possibilities:

- _step-by-step_ might be too fine-grained for many graphs
- both mincross (phase 2) & ns (phase 3) can be terminated early
  - using **mclimit** ([mclimit | Graphviz](https://www.graphviz.org/docs/attrs/mclimit/)) for mincross
  - using **nslimit** ([nslimit | Graphviz](https://www.graphviz.org/docs/attrs/nslimit/)) for ns
  - the code for the above might have to be modified for the desired granularity
  - then use the appropriate value for **phase** to produce a dot-format output, as for **illustrateDot** (above)

- phase 2 would seem to present a set of images showing nodes hopping left & right on their appointed ranks
- phase 3 would show the nodes sliding left & right, but keeping their appointed order.
- the spline boxes only apply to phase 4 and can be applied via post-processing (similar to [Fun with edges!](https://forum.graphviz.org/t/fun-with-edges/888))

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