Force Atlas hangs during dynamic

[lynchs61]

I asked this on the gephi-tests mailing list but nobody seemed to have experienced this, so I figured I'd ask it here.

When I play a dynamic graph while the force atlas (or force atlas 2) is
running it hangs about 75% of the time. When this happens the graph
continues to change according to the dynamic timeline, but the vertices
no longer respond to the layout algorithm. Also the layout algorithm
shows that it is running and can't be stopped (hitting the stop
button does nothing). The only way to restore normal behavior is to quit
the entire application.

This happens for me with every dynamic graph I've tried in gexf format,
and also if I use "File > Generate > Dynamic Graph Example..." from the
menu. It happens with version 0.8.1-beta, 0.8.2-beta, and 0.9-snapshot,
on Ubuntu Linux, and with 0.8.2-beta on OS X.

Has anyone else seen this type of behaviour?

[fflav3]

Yes, I've had the same problem on several dynamic graphs.

My difference with you, though, is that I don't *always* have this problem. Sometimes running Force Atlas 2 on a dynamic graph works fine right off the bat. Sometimes FA2 malfunctions precisely as you say, but I can get a successful dynamic FA2 layout sometimes, though not always, by exiting Gephi and then re-starting it.

The dynamic graphs that have been giving me trouble have been imported into Gephi's Data Laboratory from .CSV files. I have not tried FA2 on a dynamic graph other than through a .CSV import. And, I generally have been using Force Atlas 2 and not Force Atlas, so I can't comment on problems with Force Atlas.

I've been running Gephi 0.8.1 on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine with an Intel i7 quad core and 8GB RAM.

[lynchs61]

Ok. Since it seems there is at least one other person experiencing this, I've filed an issue in the Gephi project on github.

https://github.com/gephi/gephi/issues/736

[johnbyron]

I found what the problem is: it's the no-overlap mode.