# How do I stop igraph from normalizing my layout to a (-1,-1) to (1,1) bounding box? **URL:** \ **Category:** Usage\ **Tags:** R\ **Created:** [6 September 2024 02:53 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-stop-igraph-from-normalizing-my-layout-to-a-1-1-to-1-1-bounding-box/1865 "2024-09-06T02:53:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DOSull](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/dosull/32/1104_2.png) [@DOSull](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/DOSull)\ **Post date:** [6 September 2024 02:53 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-stop-igraph-from-normalizing-my-layout-to-a-1-1-to-1-1-bounding-box/1865/1 "2024-09-06T02:53:49Z")
I can’t figure out how to stop igraph (in R) from normalizing the layout of my graph, even if I specify the layout as a matrix or the vertices have `x`, `y` attributes. Here’s example code ```auto n <- 11 # make an elliptical arrangement of x,y coordinates a <- seq(0, 2 * pi, length.out = n + 1)[-1] x <- 5 * cos(a) y <- 3 * sin(a) L <- matrix(c(x, y), ncol = 2) G <- make_full_graph(n) |> set_vertex_attr("x", value = x) |> set_vertex_attr("y", value = y) plot(G, layout = L) ``` I would hope that the graph drawing would be elliptical with aspect ratio 5:3 but it remains stubbornly circular. The same thing happens if I specify no layout or use `layout_nicely` which the help says will apply vertex `x` and `y` attributes if they exist. I don’t know if it is applying the coordinates or not, but it appears to be normalizing them, and I can see this if I do `plot(G, layout = L, axes = T)` when it shows that my graph has been drawn not at the specified coordinates, but to fit inside a (-1, -1) to (1, 1) bounding box. Same thing happens if I do `... layout = runif(2*n, -100, 100) |> matrix(ncol = 2)` when I get a drawing in the (-1, -1) to (1, 1) bounding box. I get randomly located vertices, but they’re scaled to the bounding box again. How can I stop this behaviour? (My use case is where x, y coordinates might be geographic and I’d like to be able to draw the graph as either a map or as a graph drawing). ---
**Author:** ![szhorvat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/szhorvat/32/3_2.png) [@szhorvat](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/szhorvat)\ **Post date:** [6 September 2024 08:08 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-stop-igraph-from-normalizing-my-layout-to-a-1-1-to-1-1-bounding-box/1865/2 "2024-09-06T08:08:01Z")
I’m not really an R user, and I’m not experienced with plotting in R, so all I can say is that based on looking at the sources, passing `rescale = FALSE` to `plot` prevents this rescaling (but doesn’t adapt the plot range). Perhaps someone else can help more. ---
**Author:** ![DOSull](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/dosull/32/1104_2.png) [@DOSull](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/DOSull)\ **Post date:** [6 September 2024 09:51 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-stop-igraph-from-normalizing-my-layout-to-a-1-1-to-1-1-bounding-box/1865/3 "2024-09-06T09:51:44Z")
This helps, although… it seems that the plot continues to impose (-1, 1) (-1, 1) limits on the x and y axes. So if my vertices lie outside this window then they don’t show up in the plot at all! ```auto par(mfrow = c(1, 2)) plot(G, rescale = FALSE, axes = TRUE, asp = 1) plot(G, xlim = range(V(G)$x), ylim = range(V(G)$y), rescale = FALSE, axes = TRUE, asp = 1) ``` gives me ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/igraph/original/2X/e/e26b360af0431dd3f154a02be6c93805cd6ff2b5.png) The plot on the left still has the (-1 1) axis limits, I assume because of [this line](https://github.com/igraph/rigraph/blob/1f15302cc28eb3acf9ae46450e7bbf3944915bce/R/plot.R#L88C25-L88C57) in the code, where `xlim = c(-1, 1), ylim = c(-1, 1)` is enforced. My `xlim = range(V(G)$x), ylim = range(V(G)$y)` overrides that, and I get what I was initially hoping for (the plot on the right). Seems like I should probably report this as a bug/issue, unless there is another parameter that can set the limits based on vertex `x` and `y` attributes as is stated in documentation ---
**Author:** ![DOSull](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/igraph.discourse.group/dosull/32/1104_2.png) [@DOSull](https://igraph.discourse.group/u/DOSull)\ **Post date:** [8 September 2024 09:31 UTC](https://igraph.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-stop-igraph-from-normalizing-my-layout-to-a-1-1-to-1-1-bounding-box/1865/4 "2024-09-08T09:31:04Z")
Have posted as an issue in the repo: [plot rescales and normalizes graph even if it has vertex x and y attributes · Issue #1492 · igraph/rigraph · GitHub](https://github.com/igraph/rigraph/issues/1492)