Drawing metro maps using Bézier curves

Abstract

The automatic layout of metro maps has been investigated quite intensely over the last few years. Previous work has focused on the octilinear drawing style where edges are drawn horizontally, vertically, or diagonally at 45°. Inspired by manually created curvy metro maps, we advocate the use of the curvilinear drawing style; we draw edges as Bézier curves. Since we forbid metro lines to bend (even in stations), the user of such a map can trace the metro lines easily. In order to create such drawings, we use the force-directed framework. Our method is the first that directly represents and operates on edges as curves. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.