The best tool for visualizing ontologies? [closed]

Question

I am looking to visualize ontologies for understanding and making others understand. I would prefer to have top-down hierarchy of classes. I have used OntoGraph which comes with Protégé, but I am not happy with the figure :(. I have also used Microsoft Visio and stencils available for Ontology, but that too has not impressed me.

Through this question I would like to know which is the best tool for visualizing an ontology for general purpose, and/or for specific purpose (like writing an academic paper).

Thanks.

~Codera

Cookie

There's also vowl.visualdataweb.org/webvowl/index.html – Octodecimo

I just ran into this, really cool: vowl.visualdataweb.org/webvowl.html – Stilu

OWLGrEd might be useful. They offer online visualization (don't see any customization options though) and a desktop editor - only for Windows :( – Udele

Answer 1

I do not have complete answer for your specific problem, but you may try to review the Mike Bergman's list of tools (for ontology visualization).

Note, RDF is a graph, so you may be able to use any graph-visualization software. "Only" need to map RDF to tool-specific model.

Broadleaf

Answer 2

While not an ontology specific tool, thejit is a very nice javascript visualization toolkit. I've used it in the past for custom semweb-related visualizations. You won't get much out of the box support but if you don't mind putting in some coding time, you can get some nice looking graphs.

Banerjee

Answer 3

I can highly recommend you to utilize the graphical editor of TopBraid Composer Maestro Edition. The graphics are not the most beautiful ones. However, it's interactive ;-)

Obed