A tool for plotting networks - Cytoscape
The networks referred to here are more general than computer networks. Social networks for example. Cytoscape is a great free and flexible way to produce nice graphical output from 'linked node' data. On a recent project I had a requirement for this and Cytoscape did the job well. I would not describe the tool as all that easy to use, but the task it is carrying out is not easy. Once you take some time to familiarise yourself with the basic operation it works very well. Full details are available here. A nice feature of Cytoscape is the ability to tie a property of the data to a visual property. For example you can make the thickness of connecting lines very with a property of the relationship - weight. You could also use things like colour. There is a large set of plugins available. Many focus on biology which as the name suggests is the typical domain for this tool, but it is not limited to that. Cytoscape presents a steep learning curve, but this type of work was f