Compact layout option between auto-layout and manual

Nathanael Coyne · February 2023

Auto layout is cool but wastes a LOT of whitespace.

Manual layout is handy for utilising that wasted space and is useful for creating meaningful distance between parents and siblings e.g. this node is related but distant - but gets messy quickly because suddenly every other node pretends the manually positioned node no longer exists and just closes up the gap, with captions overlying lines.

I would like the ability to manually move a node (see Child 2) but ensure the other auto-aligned nodes won't overlay the line (like in second diagram), so basically still auto aligning to make space for the line (like in third diagram).

Monk1990 · February 2023

+1 This is a great idea, agreed!

It's great to have a simple "mind map" auto-alignment option, but only having this single option is a bit too broad for my taste.

Andrew Lapidus · February 2023

Thanks for the excellent and clear suggestion, @NathanaelCBR. I'm also a fan of this - I agree that there is certainly lot of potential in expanding the auto-layout options we have available. I'll make sure to flag this post for our product team!

Admin BSF.company · February 2023

Great explanation of your feature request @NathanaelCBR 🌟 You've got my vote too ⬆

This will be a great improvement when it gets implemented.

Cheers!

Auraxis Animus · May 2024

This needs to be called something like "Optimal alignment" or "vertical compacting" where it would place all the nodes in such order and offset to make it snazzily compact. It would indent them to conserve vertical space and use horizontal spacing more.
The main issue is that currently if you have 2 branches, from one node, that one node receives a big padding around itself and between other nodes at the parent level, which makes it inefficient for larger diagrams.
Left - current | Right - compacted manually. It should be neatly aligned of course.