Glossary · Rendering
Force-Directed Edge Bundling (FDEB)
Also known as: FDEB, Edge Bundling.
A technique that groups visually similar edges into smooth bundles, dramatically reducing visual clutter in dense graphs.
In dense graphs, hundreds or thousands of edges crisscrossing the canvas produce a "hairball" that hides structure. Force-directed edge bundling treats edges as flexible curves that attract one another based on geometric similarity (parallel direction, proximity), then iteratively pulls compatible edges together into smooth bundles.
The result is an organized, river-like flow where the dominant patterns of connectivity are visually obvious. FDEB is widely used in air-traffic visualization, social network analysis, and large telecom topology maps.
In TopoKit, FDEB is enabled with a single configuration flag (`edges.bundling: "fdeb"`) and supports tunable iterations, stiffness, and compatibility thresholds.
References
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