Path diagrams
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izahn
Joined: 09/02/2009
Forums
One of the nice things about John Fox's sem package is that it can output path diagrams. I think this is a very nice feature, and would love to see it in OpenMx. Even better if it's implemented using grid or some other R graphics system instead of graphviz (as the sem package does). Graphviz works great once you get it installed and set up, but this can be difficult.
Graphviz has a bug that
Graphviz has a bug that causes SEM diagrams to look bad, but the problem doesn't seem to be high enough priority for regular graphviz users: http://www.graphviz.org/bugs/b1752.html
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In reply to Graphviz has a bug that by mspiegel
despite that, still worth
despite that, still worth adding a $dot field to the output - lots of programs are available that can clean up the dot output.
i.e., provide the .dot and let people draw it themselves (Omnigraffle etc)?
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In reply to despite that, still worth by tbates
r932 in the subversion
r932 in the subversion repository has a function with the signature
The first argument must be a RAM model and the second argument is either a filename or "" to signify standard output. I think not relying on graphviz is a good idea, until we get enough users to request that the graphviz bug is fixed. I'm going to try to use the diagram package to make some pictures. omxGraphviz() exists in the 0.2.1 release, but it is has some bugs so don't use it. Also it will not write to standard output.
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In reply to r932 in the subversion by mspiegel
thanks mike, Would be great
thanks mike,
Would be great if users could write a mapping file to allow non RAM models to output diagrams.
so
omxGraphviz(fit, mapping)
Would use mapping describe what cells in which matrices or algebras contained the latent, observed, paths (of each type) values.
I know it's very variable, but at least creating a plug-in architecture, so to speak, would allow people to solve the problem for their favorite model and (hopefully...) share it.
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In reply to thanks mike, Would be great by tbates
Certainly something to
Certainly something to continue to consider.
For now, we decided to keep our problem constrained and only address RAM models. I hope that soon we should be able to add type="LISREL" to the model spec and be able to address drawing from LISREL matrices. I understand there is a group at KU that is working on that problem.
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In reply to despite that, still worth by tbates
Excellent, I fully support
Excellent, I fully support the approach of providing the .dot output and letting people draw/convert it using whatever tools they prefer. And I'm glad to hear it's in the works!
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In reply to Graphviz has a bug that by mspiegel
Drupal has a graphiviz
Drupal has a graphiviz filter
http://drupal.org/project/graphviz_filter
Would be great to have that up here: Nice for including diagrams in posts.
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In reply to Drupal has a graphiviz by tbates
If any one sees bugs in
If any one sees bugs in Omnigraffle's import of .dot files, please pass them on to me and I'll file bugs with Omni. Can't hurt if you do to to let them know we care.
cheers,
tim
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