Tabular data is pervasive in the form of spreadsheets and relational databases. Although tables often describe multivariate data without explicit network semantics, it may be advantageous to explore the data modeled as a graph or network for analysis. Even when a given table design conveys some static network semantics, analysts may want to look at multiple networks from different perspectives, at different levels of abstraction, and with different edge semantics.

Ploceus offers a general approach for performing multi-dimensional and multi-level network-based visual analysis on tabular data. Users can flexibly create and transform networks from data tables through a direct manipulation interface. Ploceus integrates dynamic network manipulation with visual exploration for a seamless analytic experience.