How do I visualize a complex graph in .Net?

Question

I need to visualize a graph. I don't know how to name it (by the way, if you know - I'll appreciate if you tell me). It would be ideal for graph elements to be clickable (so that when user clicks on a block, I can handle an event with the element id specified) but I can survive even without any interactivity. I may like to be able to focus on a particular node and layout all others to view from its perspective. Are there any components available good for this task? If no, what should I look for to help me to develop an algorithm for drawing such a graph with visually-comfortable layout?

Practical nature of this graph is pretty common: each block represents a derivation from 2 operands. Orange circles are references to 2 operands, green circles are connection points to consumers. It can be significant to distinguish an operand position (left or right), for example if a derivation represents a mathematical operation of difference or division (in this particular case a block can be triangular, but in other cases an operand itself can make use of being aware of for what blocks is it a left operand and for what blocks is it a right). Another common application is intersecting sets with complex relations.

Answer 1

I also would like to point you to graphviz. It is not a .NET solution but you can feed it files that are easy enough to write in order to create graphs. I don't think layouting is a very simple thing to do, especially with increasing node count, so it should be a good thing to find some tool for that.

Answer 2

Graphviz4Net provides WPF component for graphs visualization. It depends on GraphViz (open source command line graph visualization tool).