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P2Lab State Machine

Auto-layout

Arranging a large machine by hand is tedious. Auto-layout does it for you, producing a tidy left-to-right flow with as few crossing arrows as possible.

Run it

Section titled “Run it”

On the Diagram tab, click Auto-layout in the toolbar. Every state is repositioned automatically and the new layout is saved.

What it does

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Auto-layout arranges states in columns that follow the flow of the machine:

  • It starts from the initial state and places each state in a column based on how many steps it takes to reach it.
  • Within each column, states are ordered to keep connected boxes close together, which minimises crossing arrows.
  • States that are not connected to the rest of the machine — for example a newly added state with no transitions yet — are placed together, out of the way of the main flow.
  • When a column has many states, they wrap onto more than one row instead of running off the edge of the canvas.

Reset and try again

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If you have moved states around by hand and want to start over, Reset layout clears your manual positions. Running Auto-layout again then produces a fresh arrangement.

After auto-layout you can still fine-tune anything by dragging individual states — your adjustments are saved on top of the automatic layout.

Next steps

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