Menu: Layout menu
From DSL
The Layout Menu offers the following commands:
Show Gridlines
This command toggles display of the grid i.e., a mesh of perpendicular horizontal and vertical lines in the background of the Graph View. The grid is useful in drawing and aligning nodes. It can also be enabled/disabled by using the Ctrl+G shortcut. If the grid lines display is enabled, then a 
will appear against the option in the Layout Menu.
Snap to Grid
If this option is enabled, then all new nodes that are created in the Graph View will be aligned to the grid. If you want to align existing nodes to the grid, select them and use the Align to Grid option [ See Below ]. Dragging of nodes will ot be smooth, as they will jump from one grid line to the other. You can enable/disable this option using the [ Ctrl+Shift+G ] shortcut. If the Snap to Grid option is enabled, then a will appear against the option in the Layout Menu.
Align to Grid
This option aligns the selected node to the nearest grid lines. It is enabled only if there is atleast 1 node selected in the Graph View. It can also be invoked using the 
button on the Format Toolbar.
Grid Properties
This command opens up the Grid Properties dialog box shown below:
Show Grid: This check box has a same function as the Show Gridlines option in the Layout menu. If it is checked, then the grid lines will be displayed in the Graph View.
Snap to Grid: This checkbox has the same function as the Snap to Grid option in the Layout menu. It it is checked then all new nodes created will be automatically aligned to the grid.
Spacing: It adjusts the spacing in pixels between the lines of the grid. A lesser value of spacing will result in a finer grid.
Style: The grid lines can be displayed in 3 styles:
Solid Lines: The grid lines will be solid.
Dotted Lines: The grid lines will be dotted.
Dots: Only intersection points of the grid lines are displayed.
Color: This selects the color of the grid lines. You can select any color from the palette or define your own color. The color selection is similar to color selection for nodes. See Interior, Text & Border Colors section of Node Properties Sheet for more information on how to select color.
While darker colors are better when the grid style is dotted or dotted lines, select lighter colors for solid lines grids so that they dont clutter the Graph View. You can always turn off the grid lines display by disabling the Show Gridlines option in the Layout menu.
Restore Defaults: Use this option to return the Grid display settings to the original settings that come with the software.
OK: Use the OK button to finalize the settings. This will apply the new settings and close the dialog box.
Apply: Use this button to view how the changes will look on the Graph View. If you are not happy, you can always change the settings or use Cancel to ignore all changes to the Grid display properties. Use OK to finalize the settings and close the box.
Cancel: Use this to ignore all the changes made to the Grid display properties and close the box.
Align Commands
Each of these commands can be also invoked from a corresponding Format toolbar icon, shown next to command name below.
At least two nodes must be selected for the following commands to be active.
Align To Left [ 
]
Aligns the leftmost points of the selected nodes to one vertical line.
Align To Right [ 
]
Aligns the rightmost points of the selected nodes to one vertical line.
Center Horizontally [ 
]
Aligns the center points of the selected nodes to one vertical line.
Align To Top [ 
]
Aligns the topmost points of the selected nodes to one horizontal line.
Align To Bottom [ 
]
Aligns the bottom points of the selected nodes to one horizontal line.
Centre Vertically [ 
]
Aligns the middle points of the selected nodes to one horizontal line.
The following 2 options will be active only if 3 or more nodes are selected.
Distribute Horizontally [ 
]
Distributes evenly the selected nodes horizontally between the position of the farthest nodes.
Distribute Vertically [ 
]
Distributes evenly the selected nodes vertically between the position of the farthest nodes.
The following 2 options will be active only if at least 1 node is selected.
Bring to Front [ 
]
This command brings the selected node to the front if it is overlapped by other nodes.
Send to Back [ 
]
This command brings to front the nodes overlapped by the selected node.
Graph Layout
It is possible that a newly loaded network created by another program and translated by GeNIe will have no layout information (i.e., positions of nodes on the screen). The Spring Embedder Layout command, in the Graph view, rearranges the positions of the nodes in such a way that the nodes do not overlap each other and the layout is readable for the user.
Clicking on the Graph Layout -> Spring Embedder option and it opens the following dialog box:
Ideal Arc Length: This specifies the ideal distance between to interconnected nodes in pixels. Please note that not all arcs will be of this length, the algorithm will modify this length to reduce overlaps as necessary.
Iterations: This specifies the no. of iterations for the layout algorithm. For faster execution reduce this no.
Randomize positions at startup: If this checkbox is checked, GeNIe randomizes the node positions before running the layout algorithm. If it is not checked, the node positions are not changed and given to the algorithm as it is.
The Graph Layout -> Parent Ordering option opens the following dialog box:
Top to Bottom: This places the nodes in the model in the top to bottom on the graph view.
Left to Right: This places the nodes in the model from left to right on the graph view.
Spacing: This specifies the distance between the nodes.
