Automatic layout of statecharts

Graphical notations are widely used for system specification. The usefulness of these notations depends primarily on their readability. Hence, automatic methods are needed to obtain efficient and understandable graphical representations of requirements. In this paper, we present an algorithm that automatically generates layouts of statecharts. We assume that relevant information is stored in a structure that we call a decomposition tree, and we draw the graph that models a statechart in a hierarchical fashion. Our approach excludes diagrams with inter‐level transitions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.