Doxygen Graphviz Failed: A Guide to Generating Scalable Vector Graphics

When working with Doxygen, it's not uncommon to encounter issues with generating graphviz files. One such issue is when the generated map file contains characters that are also present in the graph itself. This can lead to strange and unacceptable results.

In my experience, one of the most effective ways to overcome this issue is to multiply the size of the image by a factor of 1.04. This may seem like an unusual solution, but it has produced the best results for me. Additionally, I have found that setting the DPI to 96 in dot can also help to resolve issues with rendering.

Another common problem encountered when generating graphviz files is that hyperlinks in the generated dot files start with a '$' character. To overcome this issue, I decided to obtain the destination size from the png file and scale the svg file accordingly.

It's worth noting that the dot tool uses different sizes for svg and png graphics, which can make it difficult to generate an svg file with the same displayed image size as an equal bitmap file. However, by using a patch that creates additional png files when the user selects svg format, it is possible to overcome this issue.

In my testing, I found that Opera provided the best results, followed closely by Firefox. Konqueror did not fare as well, but this may be due to a bug rather than an inherent limitation of the browser. Overall, most modern browsers have limited support for rendering svg graphics, and this patch adds support for generating scalable vector graphics instead of bitmaps for HTML output.

Doxygen graphviz failed