circular network chart (non-ribbon chord diagram)

Creates a circular graph/network with customisable nodes and edges. Supports multiple rendering methods, group layout, curvature control.

See new version ~ ~ ~ o(> _ <)o

Basic usage and RenderingMethod

Data = [25,  0,  0, 22, 24, 25,  8,  0, 0;
         0, 14,  0,  0,  0,  0,  6,  4, 1;
         0,  0, 11,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 7;
         0,  0,  0, 22,  0, 20, 17,  0, 0;
         0,  0,  0,  0, 24,  3,  6,  3, 0;
         0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 25,  7,  0, 2;
         0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 17,  0, 0;
         0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 11, 0;
         0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 5];

% Input required: Upper triangular adjacency matrix
% Node radius is mapped from diagonal values; 
% edge width is mapped from off‑diagonal values (separate mappings).


%% Basic usage (default RenderingMethod : simple)
figure()
% Create circular network chart object and draw.
CN1 = circNetChart(Data);
CN1 = CN1.draw();

%% Change color (RenderingMethod : interp)
figure()
CList = [127, 91, 93; 187,128,110; 197,173,143;  59, 71,111; 104, 95,126;  76,103, 86; 
         112,112,124;  72, 39, 24; 197,119,106; 160,126, 88; 238,208,146]./255;

CN2 = circNetChart(Data);
CN2.RenderingMethod = 'interp';  % RenderingMethod : interp
CN2.NodeColor = CList;           % Change node color
% CN2.EdgeColor = CList;         % Change edge color (Edge color defaults to match node color)
CN2 = CN2.draw();

%% RenderingMethod : map
figure()
CN3 = circNetChart(Data);
CN3.RenderingMethod = 'map';     % RenderingMethod : map (Map values to colors) 
CN3 = CN3.draw();

colormap(turbo)
colorbar('FontName','Times New Roman', 'FontSize',15)

Node-Size-Lim and Edge-Width-Lim, Label, Curvature

Data = triu(randi([1, 20], [18, 18]));

%% Node-Size-Lim and Edge-Width-Lim
figure()
CN4 = circNetChart(Data);
% Node radius is mapped from diagonal values; 
% edge width is mapped from off‑diagonal values (separate mappings).
% The minimum non‑zero diagonal value maps to the first element of NodeSizeLim, 
% and the maximum maps to the second. (The same applies to EdgeWidthLim).
% If the two values of NodeSizeLim are equal, 
% all nodes will have the same size. (The same applies to EdgeWidthLim).
CN4.NodeSizeLim = [.05, .05];
CN4.EdgeWidthLim = [.01, .01];
CN4 = CN4.draw();

%% Label rotate and label porperties
figure()
CN5 = circNetChart(Data);
CN5.NodeSizeLim = [.05, .05];
CN5.EdgeWidthLim = [.01, .01];
CN5 = CN5.draw();

% Enable label rotation for better readability.
CN5.labelRotate('on')
% Set global label style: monospaced font, size 15.
CN5.setLabel('FontName', 'Monospaced', 'FontSize',15)
% Customize the 2nd label individually with blue color.
CN5.setLabelN(2, 'Color',[0,0,.8])

%% Curvature (Default : 0.5 | Straight line: 0 | Bezier curve: 1)
figure()
CN6 = circNetChart(Data);
CN6.NodeSizeLim = [.05, .05];
CN6.EdgeWidthLim = [.01, .01];
CN6.Curvature = 0;  % Straight line: 0
CN6 = CN6.draw();

figure()
CN7 = circNetChart(Data);
CN7.NodeSizeLim = [.05, .05];
CN7.EdgeWidthLim = [.01, .01];
CN7.Curvature = 1;  % Bezier curve: 1
% CN7.NodeColor = turbo(18);
CN7 = CN7.draw();

%% Node name
Data = triu(randi([1, 20], [5, 5]));
figure()
CN8 = circNetChart(Data);
CN8.NodeName = {'AAA','BBB','CCC','DDD','EEE'}; % Change node name
CN8 = CN8.draw();

Group

Data = triu(randi([1, 20], [40, 40]));
Data((rand(40) + eye(40)) < .9) = 0;

% Define node groups
Group = [ones(1,5), ones(1,5).*2, ones(1,8).*3, ones(1,12).*4, ones(1,8).*5, 1, 1];
groupName = {'Set-AAA','Set-BBB','Set-CCC','Set-DDD','Set-EEE'};

% CList = [127, 91,  93; 187, 128, 110; 197, 173, 143;  59,  71, 111; 104,  95, 126]./255;
CList = [78, 101, 155; 138, 140, 191; 184, 168, 207; 231, 188, 198; 253, 207, 158]./255;

%% Group
figure()
CN9 = circNetChart(Data);
CN9.NodeSizeLim = [.03, .03];
CN9.EdgeWidthLim = [.01, .01];
CN9.Curvature = .8;

CN9.NodeColor = CList(Group, :);  % Color nodes by group membership
CN9.RenderingMethod = 'interp';   % RenderingMethod : interp

% Group layout settings
CN9.Group = Group;                % Group assignment for each node
CN9.GroupSep = 1/4;               % Group gaps occupy 1/4 of the circle
% CN9.GroupName  = groupName;
% CN9.GroupLabelRadius = 1.35;


CN9 = CN9.draw();

% Enable label rotation for better readability.
CN9.labelRotate('on')
% Set global label style: monospaced font, size 12.
CN9.setLabel('FontName', 'Monospaced', 'FontSize',12)
% % Set global group label style: monospaced font, size 21.
% CN9.setGroupLabel('FontName', 'Monospaced', 'FontSize',21)


% Create legend for each group
[~, ind] = unique(Group);
legend(CN9.nodeHdl(ind), groupName, 'FontName', 'Monospaced', 'FontSize',12, 'Location','best')

A demo (Pi digit connectivity visualization)

%% Pi digit connectivity visualization (digits 1-1000)

% First 1000 digits of pi after decimal point
piStr = ['1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078', ...
    '1640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058', ...
    '1723175359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964', ...
    '4288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486', ...
    '1045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817488152092096282', ...
    '9254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609433', ...
    '0572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673', ...
    '5188575272489122793818301194912983367336244065664308602139494639522', ...
    '4737190702179860943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132000', ...
    '5681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301', ...
    '4654958537105079227968925892354201995611212902196086403441815981362', ...
    '9774771309960518707211349999998372978049951059731732816096318595024', ...
    '4594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865', ...
    '8753320838142061717766914730359825349042875546873115956286388235378', ...
    '75937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201999'];

% Convert digit characters to group indices (1-10)
% Subtract 47 to map ASCII '0' (48) to group 1
Group = abs(piStr(1:1000)) - 47;

% Build adjacency matrix: connect each digit to its next neighbor (off-diagonal)
Data = diag(ones(1, 999), -1);

% Sort nodes by group for grouped layout
[Group, ind] = sort(Group);
Data = Data(ind, ind);              % Reorder adjacency matrix
Data = Data + Data.' + eye(1000);   % Make symmetric and add self-loops

% Define group (digit) names and custom colors
groupName = {'0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'};
colorList = [239, 65, 75; 230, 115, 48; 229, 158, 57; 232, 136, 85; 239, 199, 97;
             144, 180, 116; 78, 166, 136; 81, 140, 136; 90, 118, 142; 43, 121, 159] ./ 255;

% Create figure with black background
figure()
set(gca, 'Color', [0, 0, 0])

% Initialize circular network chart
CNPI = circNetChart(Data);

% Node and edge appearance (uniform sizes)
CNPI.NodeSizeLim   = [0.01, 0.01];
CNPI.EdgeWidthLim  = [0.005, 0.005];

% Group layout configuration
CNPI.Group              = Group;
CNPI.GroupSep           = 1/8;              % Gap between groups (1/8 of full circle)
CNPI.GroupName          = groupName;
CNPI.GroupLabelRadius   = 1.05;

% RenderingMethod : interp
CNPI.NodeColor         = colorList(Group, :);  
CNPI.RenderingMethod   = 'interp';            

% Edge curvature (full Bezier curve)
CNPI.Curvature = 1;

% Render the chart
CNPI = CNPI.draw();

% Hide individual node labels
CNPI.setLabel('Visible', 'off')

% Style group labels (digit labels around the circle)
CNPI.setGroupLabel('FontSize', 25, 'FontName', 'Monospaced', ...
                   'FontWeight', 'bold', 'Color', 'w')