This is the first automatic area-proportional Euler diagram drawing tool that uses ellipses. It generates an exact diagram for most of the cases, and when it fails, the best diagram obtained through the hill climbing search is displayed, together with the inaccuracy values for each region. Formal evaluation demonstrates that in contrast to various circle-based and polygon-based methods, 92.56% of random data sets for Venn-3 diagrams are represented exactly using desirable smooth shapes. Other formal evaluation is being carried out to investigate how well it can handle data sets with zero region areas. The aim of the current software releases is to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm in drawing exact area-proportional diagrams. More work is being carried out to improve the design and features of future releases. Thus, any feedback is greatly appreciated. It is currently restricted to 3 curves, but later on, it will be extended to handle more curves. Please acknowledge eulerAPE when used.


eulerAPE for real data sets: Regenbrecht et al., BMC Med Genomics 2008 eulerAPE for real data sets: Lenz & Fornoni, BMC Medicine 2006 eulerAPE for real data sets: Bener et al., International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 2011

eulerAPE for real world data: click to the image to view the original diagram published in the respective article






New improved version (v2.0) is now available
 
This page is dedicated for the latest version, v2.0. The previous version, v1.0, is available here.
The drawing algorithm for v2.0 has been improved and additional features have been added, including:
  • hiding labels,
  • producing black and white images,
  • loading region areas saved in a file or from a diagram described in a file.
 
Now fully tested for both Windows and Mac OS X
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Downloads

release comments date
2.0.1 fully tested on both Windows and Mac OS X April 13, 2012
2.0 does not work on Mac OS X January 20, 2012
 
Ideal screen resolution: 1250x780 or better
 
Getting Started

  1. Download and install Java version 6.0 or greater. on your machine.
  2. Download eulerAPE_2.0.1.jar.
  3. Double click on the downloaded eulerAPE_2.0.1.jar to run eulerAPE.
 
Running eulerAPE: in 3 steps





Running eulerAPE: reference guide

 
When eulerAPE starts, such a window opens:
 
 
To draw an area-proportional diagram, enter the area of every region or click on the 'random' button to generate random region areas.
 
 
Alternatively, click on the 'load' button and select a .els file ('eulerAPE region areas' file) or a .eld file ('eulerAPE diagram' file).
 
 
An 'eulerAPE region areas' file with extension .els, such as this example (use a text editor to open or edit the file), defines the region areas to be loaded as follows:
 

   //a | b | c | ab | ac | bc | abc
   35754.013 | 19659.5199 | 25875.2088 | 31804.3018 | 12767.035 | 6146.8151 | 10660.841
 
An 'eulerAPE diagram' file with extension .eld, such as this example (use a text editor to open or edit the file), defines the properties of the ellipses in the diagram as follows:
 

   DIAGRAM

   ABSTRACTDESCRIPTION
   0 a b c ab ac bc abc

   ELLIPSES - label | semi-major axis | semi-minor axis | centre - x | centre - y | rotation |
   a|153.5719137804447|188.5880803457693|13.73565673828125|15.873870849609375|28.0865478515625|
   b|134.13217642711342|162.01571769598812|127.37902934465217|-0.174407958984375|121.82968139648438|
   c|120.65623133360415|146.28532914593777|95.03880772271356|155.49038082122723|88.07373046875|
 
The label, semi-major axis α, semi-minor axis β, x of centre C, y of centre C, rotation θ of the 3 ellipses must be defined (one line for each ellipse). The ellipses must be labelled as a, b, c.

If such a file is chosen, the region areas of the diagram in the file are computed and loaded. When eulerAPE diagram files are saved (as explained below), a .eld file is generated for both the initial and the final diagram in the search.
 
To view the inital diagram that eulerAPE uses to start off the search process, click on the 'Starting Diagram' button.

Alternatively or consequently, start the search process by clicking on the 'RUN' button. Before doing so:

  1. SAVE TO FILE :
    select the directory and the file name where images and details of the initial and final diagram will be saved locally (if required), once the search is over and a diagram is generated
  2. LABELS : decide whether the shown and saved diagram should have labels
  3. COLOUR : decide whether the shown and saved diagram should be coloured or black and white
  4. CURVES FOR SETS : select 'ellipses' or 'circles' to draw the set curves
  5. VIEW SEARCH : decide whether you would like to view the search process or not
 
 
During the search, a timer (hours : mins : secs : msecs) is displayed at the bottom right corner of the window.

Once it stops running, a note saying 'Exact' or 'Inexact' is displayed just below the 'Starting Diagram' button,to indicate whether an exact diagram has been generated or not.
 
 
At any point, you can show or hide labels and switch between colour and black and white mode. The diagram is saved after the search is completed and thus, for the desired visuals to be saved locally, these options have to be set before clicking on the 'Run' button.
 
 
To generate a diagram for a new set of region areas, click on the 'clear all' button and enter the areas manually, randomly or load them automatically from a file, as explained earlier.
 


For any questions, please contact Luana Micallef or Peter Rodgers (emails).

School of Computing
University of Kent
Canterbury, UK

Last updated: 17th April 2012