First off, thank you for making a software that I love to use every day.
Coming from this love, I would like to make a request:
Can we please have the ability to configure what variables are used to calculate and render the size of nodes in the graph-view?
I believe the graph-view is one of the most important features of Obsidian. It has the potential to completely change how we discover, reason about and share new ideas.
This is a great set of variables. I think there’s a lot of room to grow in the graph view. I can also imagine, for instance, illustrating a variable along a colour spectrum (e.g., old notes could be cold colours, new notes could be warm). https://kumu.io, a graphing software for systems mapping and social network analysis, provides some more ideas:
Note border colour
Note border width
Note shadow opacity
Note shadow size
Arrow width
There’s more, but the point is that the graph could be quite the insightful, personalized visualization.
One more thing: I’d like to add centrality measures to the list of variables you’ve proposed, such as:
Closeness
Betweenness
Reach and reach-efficiency
Eigenvector
Eccentricity
Performance might be an issue if Obsidian was constantly calculating these values, so they should probably be implemented via a plug-in and run manually.
If implementation of further Graph functionality is on the table, I would like to request the ability to manually set a minimum size for a node. This can help manually highlight hierarchical structures in Graph mode, while allowing the nodes that gain importance to “promote” themselves.
I wanted to bump this and add that the ability to configure groups in graph view using different shapes for nodes (in addition to the current color options) would also be wonderful. I love that groups can be set to different colors, but it would be huge for interface clarity and accessibility if shapes (squares, stars, triangles, concentric circles/rings, etc.) were also available.
Thanks to the developers and to all the contributors in this awesome community!
I would like to bump this up as well, a custom function to calculate size of nodes is the feature that would really utilize the full power of graph view and lack of this feature is why I don’t use it since my graph got pretty big.
I would like to calculate node size based on total number of outgoing links - that means including the outgoing links of their children recursively.
That would get me a star-like structure I’m looking for in my graph view.
If there will be a few options of how to calculate node size, please make this option one of them
Yes, I hit google expecting there to be a plugin. Loving Obsidian in my short time using it, and it has essentially replaced my entire note taking process for the better. Being able to quickly identify which nodes are becoming most central to my thinking would be incredibly helpful for the analytic process. +1 on this request please! I would offer to help as I know networks, but only in Python.
Big +1 on this from me.
It would be a dealbreaker for laying the groundwork for flourishing visual learning through pattern recognition, with a system that makes sense to you.
I speculate the graph mode is likely programmed with a shader, and there could be concerns about performance and/or flexibility of the system.
If this is the case: Make using a different shader with more params and flexibility optional, and include a brief mention “Not recommended for large vaults.” or similar. Though of course making sure graph mode is as performant as possible is of utmost importance.
Graph view was a major reason I prioritised Obsidian over Notion. Would really love to see this feature!
I’m doing a research and it would be great to visualize how relevent certain technologies, concepts and methods are among all the articles I’m reading. By the way graph view works now, the articles’ nodes get huge because I’m linking all the info inside them (meaning they approach a lot of things, which is also useful sometimes).
Proposed solution
I think it would be interesting if there was an option for toggling the way node sizes are shown. Currently, Notes’ nodes get bigger when they have several other notes/links inside them. What are your thoughts about an option to toggle between this, and the other way round: where a note’s node would get bigger the more they appear in other notes, even if it’s empty itself.
Bump for sure! I’d love the ability to control node size by connections.
I’d also love to fade text display by number of connections, if that’s doable.
By the way, for anyone who visits this page, I just wanted to share that through the community plugin, Juggl - Juggl, this can be achieved to some extent (custom sizes for certain tags)
- would help a lot with my vault. I think also with attracting more people to obsidian. Think about posts in Reddit and YouTube with this.