How to move a node in dot "to the right"

1

Consider the following (simplified) diagram:

digraph app_structure {
    node [shape=rectangle
          margin=0.2]
    edge [fontsize=11
          minlen=3
          ]

    subgraph cluster_0 {
        margin=15
        label = <Game Framework<br/>(black box)>
        rank = min
        node [shape=rectangle
              margin=0.2]
        edge [minlen=1]
        {
            rank=same

            ui [label=<UI modules>
                margin=0.15]
            app [label=<Rules modules>]
        }
        ui -> app
        app -> ui
    }

    bot [label=<AI Bot module>
         margin=0.3
         ]
    app -> bot [label="               "
                headlabel=<GameState       >
                labeldistance=4]
    bot -> app [headlabel=<                  Move>
                labeldistance=5]
}

This gives with dot:

mini
mini1196Ă—1250 32.6 KB

Here I would like to move only the “AI Bot” node half to the right so that it centres with the “Game Framework” cluster. I tried adding some nodes with various rank settings (thinking I could make them invisible later) but somehow could not get there.

Any ideas how to do this?

2

One way is to add a second set of (invisible) edges between ui and bot, like so:

    // slide "bot" to the right by adding symmetric (invisible) edges
    edge [style=invis]
    ui->bot
    bot->ui

Giving:
moveRight1

1 Like
3

So cool. I was playing with nodes, but didn’t think of “nudging” the graph with edges. Thanks heaps!

Now it looks as I want it. Cheers to Graphviz! :smile: (However, the ways to tell Graphviz how to move things visually around feel rather cumbersome and limited to me.)