Glossary · Components
Minimap
Also known as: Overview Map, Bird's-Eye View.
A small, scaled-down view of the entire graph displayed in a corner of the canvas, with a viewport rectangle showing the visible area. Click and drag the rectangle to pan.
On large graphs, users quickly lose track of where they are after panning and zooming. A minimap gives them a constant overview: the entire graph rendered at low resolution in a corner, with a rectangle indicating the current viewport. Clicking inside the minimap pans to that location; dragging the rectangle pans continuously.
A good minimap shares the LOD cache with the main renderer (so it does not re-render the graph from scratch) and updates in real time as the user navigates. TopoKit's minimap component is configurable in size, position, and opacity, and supports custom node colors.
See also
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