This has only been up on Sourceforge since June 2011, so it will be interesting to follow further development on ‘Sankey Diagrams in Python’. I have added the project to the list of Sankey diagram software.

ParSets and Fineo have similarities and differences. But before we go into details, let’s have a look at both tools first. Here is a screenshot from ParSets:

And here is one from Fineo:

ParSets was developed by Robert Kosara (Department of Computer Science, College of Computing and Informatics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte) and Caroline Ziemkiewicz (Brown University). The tool is open source and runs on Mac and Windows platforms. Read more about ParSets on the project page on Robert’s EagerEyes blog. The project had some funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the tool is designed to work on census data or other statistical data.

Fineo was developed by the DensityDesign group, a Research Lab in the design department (INDACO) of the Politecnico di Milano in Italy. This is an online tool and can be used by uploading csv data files. Try the online version here, or visit the project page on the Density Design blog. This is a self-sponsored project, targeting at designers and infographers.

There are some differences in the layout and design. ParSets shows the link between categories as parallelograms, while Fineo has curved bands. The main orientation of the diagram is top-to-bottom in ParSets, and left-to-right in Fineo. Hence the nodes (representing categories) are thin horizontal lines in ParSets, and vertical black bars in Fineo. Not sure, but this is probably an option setting.

The main difference though seems to be that ParSets keeps track of subdivisions over neighbouring categories. Fineo looks more at pairs of categories (category – relation – category) and is according to the authors more inspired by this feature of Sankey diagrams (read here). On a side note I would like to add to this that both ParSets and Fineo lack one important of characteristic of Sankey diagrams, which differentiates them from Sankey diagrams: flow direction, or, in other words, a ‘from-to’ relationship. “Both of the visualizations are weighted bipartite graphs”, but not directed graphs.

Still, both tools are very good pieces of work, and I am looking forward to seeing updates in the future.

I played around a bit with the tool, but didn’t quite manage to do my own Sankey diagram. See for yourself. The code is open source, so if anyone wants to contribute… I updated my software list.

The below are two new samples shipped with the test version. The first is for the efficiency of a car engine, in German…

… the second a remake of the oxy-combustion Sankey diagram I presented here on the blog two years ago:

The price has gone up a little for the new version. I have updated my Sankey software page accordingly.

I played with the demo models included in the trial version, one of which is for a toy parrot. The product life cycle is modeled from cradle-to-grave with the raw materials, assembly, distribution, use, and end-of-life phases. Using embodied carbon data from an LCI database for the raw materials and energy used along the life-cycle, a carbon footprint is calculated. The material and energy flows related to the product manufacturing and use are then shown as a Sankey diagram.

The Sankey view can be switched to an ‘embodied carbon’ or carbon load view, which shows the ‘carbon rucksack’ of the product as it cumulates along the supply chain.

In this second Sankey diagram the arrows representing the greenhouse gas burdens caused by the waste disposal phase are turned around, so that both the upstream supply chain as well as the downstream processing after the product use are visually added. They form one large Sankey arrow (shown in green here) for the product’s carbon footprint.

This is of course not a Sankey diagram drawing software, but rather a modeling or calcalation tool for carbon footprints. Still, I think, this is a fine use case where Sankey diagrams unfold their full visualization power. It can be immediately grasped which stage of the life cycle, or which raw material or energy supply contributes most to the carbon footprint.

Note: Have added this to the software list.

SankeyR is a function for the R open source statistical computing and graphics package based on the drawSankey routine for Matlab developed at EPFL. Aaron Berdanier at Colorado State adapted it to work with R. It produces simple left-to-right Sankey diagrams like this one:

The routine creates a plot in R, or can be outputed to bmp or pdf format. “Inputs do not need to equal losses. Any difference will be displayed as a discrepancy in the height of the left and right sides of the diagram. This capability enables the developer to examine imbalances in flows.”

Get the source from Aaron’s blog.

I have added SankeyR to the Sankey software list. Thanks Aaron for sharing this with the R community. I am just not sure how what to make of the blog name…

The idea of SankeyTurtle code is to give each Sankey flux – each data cell – an accompagnying instruction how to draw the flux exactly in terms of path and geometry. The SankeyTurtle syntax is based on the vintage Logo TurtleGraphics drawing language, where you tell an imaginary turtle with a pen attached to it’s tail commands like “Move Forward” and “Turn Right 90°” and record the trail of the pen.

This will definitely an exciting improvement for all users of the SankeyHelper freeware … sorry, Sankeyware.

I’ll keep you posted about the progress and any official release.

It has a left-to-right orientation, with inputs from the left, and losses branching out to the top. Made with Matlab add-on m.DrawSankey from EPFL Lausannne.

DrawSankey.m is from the Industrial Energy Systems Laboratory (LENI) at Swiss EPFL in Lausanne. Find more information on their Wiki.

I haven’t tested it myself yet, but this definitely looks like an interesting add-on for Matlab users. I have added drawSankey.m to the Sankey software list.

The authors consider Sankey diagrams as directed weighted graphs but they “can be difficult, time-consuming, and uninteresting to render by hand”. However, “Sankey diagrams do add an indisputable expressive power to a standard mathematical rendering of a graph…[and] when professionally constructed, Sankey diagrams represent flow in a manner … can be understood by anyone, instantly.”

Three diagrams are presented: a simple directed, weighted graph representing a candy factory, a pen-sketched B/W Sankey diagram, and the corresponding Sankey diagram in SVG format, created using data in XML format and XSLT style sheet transformation.

They also have some interesting details on graphical problems, such as overlay, edge layout, width of Sankey arrows in curves, etc. Basically all that stuff that developers of professional Sankey software tools have to cope with.

The tool comes as a Microsoft Excel workbook, with a number of macros and a toolbar that allows to create shapes and assignments from the data sheet to these shapes. Of course, graphical layout capacities of this helper tool is limited, however, simple diagrams can be drawn easily once you understand how to handle it.

Sankey Helper 2.1 is freeware – err, sorry! – “Sankeyware”. You must sent the author a Sankey diagram you created, but otherwise there is no cost. Nice idea! Download Sankey Helper from Gabor Doka’s website.

The new version comes in two different flavours: a standard version and a “pro” version, which differs from the standard version by offering a ‘LiveLink’ for Excel files and material stocks visualization.

A full list of new features has been published in their BBS. Some are nice to have, such as the 40+ fill patterns or background colour for the diagram. Others are off real added value (at least in my eyes), such as rotating of labels, or padding at processes.

The implementation of the interface to Microsoft Excel (so-called LiveLink) is a big push and definitely justifies the price difference of 60 Euro (110 US$) for the e!Sankey 2.0 pro version. You can copy & paste values from Excel into the quantity field for a flow, establishing a dynamic reference to the cell in the background (cells should be named, so that their postion can be changed without losing the reference to the e!Sankey diagram). If the value in the Excel file is changed, the flow quantity is automatically updated, and the diagram adapted accordingly. Read more about the Excel LiveLink.

A 30-day trial version can be downloaded here.

I will play around with e!Sankey 2.0 pro (after I have dug through my inbox ) and present some more Sankey diagrams within the next days…

The result is a pre-wired Sankey diagram shape, in which five flows exit from a process box. The flows scale automatically according to the user input.

VG’s example is fun, showing cost of living and what money is being spent on. I just hope his food spendings don’t spread 60/40 on chips and coffee…

Read the full blog post. There is a download link for this Visio shape at the end.