R package for circle packing.
This package provides functions to find non-overlapping arrangements of circles.
The function circleLayout attempts to arrange a set of circles of specified
radii within a rectangle such that there is no-overlap between circles.
The algorithm is adapted from an example written in Processing by Sean
McCullough (which no longer seems to be available online). It involves
iterative pair-repulsion, in which overlapping circles move away from each
other. The distance moved by each circle is proportional to the radius of the
other to approximate inertia (very loosely), so that when a small circle is
overlapped by a large circle, the small circle moves furthest. This process
is repeated iteratively until no more movement takes place (acceptable
layout) or a maximum number of iterations is reached (layout failure). To
avoid edge effects, the bounding rectangle is treated as a toroid. Each
circle's centre is constrained to lie within the rectangle but its edges are
allowed to extend outside.
The package also contains an initial Rcpp port of an algorithm described by Collins and Stephenson (2003) to find an arrangement of circles which corresponds to a graph of desired circle tangencies. The implementation is based on a Python version by David Eppstein (see CirclePack.py in the PADS library.
To install:
- the latest released version:
install.packages("packcircles") - the latest development version:
install_github("mbedward/packcircles")