Rail Schematic Viz
Railway topology and interactive operational diagrams.
Made for transport software and visualisation teams.
Overview
This engineering project is under active development. The scope below describes its intended design; deployment readiness and supported capabilities must be confirmed for each engagement.
Railway information has its own structure. Tracks connect through stations and junctions; assets can be positioned by distance along a line; operational data needs to remain attached to the correct part of that network.
Rail Schematic Viz brings those concepts into a reusable browser library. It separates the topology of a railway from the screen positions used to present it, then gives applications a way to layer operational information onto the result. Software teams can build a specialised railway view on a common model instead of repeatedly inventing an unrelated drawing system.
What it provides
Graph model and data inputs
The core represents railway nodes, edges, geometry, and typed coordinates. A builder API supports programmatic graph construction, while JSON and railML parsing connect structured input to the same model.
Screen coordinates describe the visual schematic. Linear coordinates locate information along track distances, and geographic coordinates provide another source context. Coordinate bridges connect these representations so an application can bring operational records into a schematic view with explicit conversion rules.
Rendering, layout, and interaction
An SVG renderer provides the core visual output. Layout and viewport packages add organisation, pan, zoom, selection, and interaction behaviours, while an optional canvas package offers another rendering path.
The package architecture gives developers a focused starting point and room to add capabilities as the product requires them. The view can remain a simple diagram or become part of a more involved operational application with coordinated selections and domain-specific controls.
Overlays
Explain what is happening on the network
Overlay infrastructure manages registration, lifecycle, ordering, events, and configuration. Built-in layers include heat maps, annotations, range bands, traffic flow, and time-series information.
Legends, colour utilities, spatial indexing, collision handling, and accessibility helpers support the presentation of these layers. An application can pair the stable railway topology with changing operational information, allowing users to explore a selected section or compare activity over time.
Framework integration and export
React, Vue, and Web Component adapters connect the library to different application environments. The React surface provides viewport, overlay, selection, and export actions through a component reference and supporting hook.
SVG and image export support sharing an operational view beyond its interactive session. Additional packages cover themes, internationalisation, contextual actions, linked selections, and other integration concerns, keeping specialised capabilities separate from the core graph.
Integration example
A software team constructs a small station-and-track graph through `GraphBuilder`, supplies screen positions, and renders it in a supported adapter. It then attaches a heat-map overlay to the relevant positions and exposes fit-to-view and selection controls.
The user can inspect a track section and export the view. This example shows how topology, operational information, and application interaction meet through the library's separate layers; the host product supplies its own rail data and business interpretation.
Built with
Baobab developed a domain-specific graph and coordinate model, parsers, rendering primitives, and an extensible visualisation ecosystem. The project demonstrates typed data modelling, specialised browser graphics, reusable adapter design, and packaging for integration into other software.
Its strength is the connection between railway concepts and application primitives. An operational record can be traced through parsing, coordinate handling, and presentation instead of becoming an arbitrary point on an unrelated canvas.
Questions
Is this available for deployment?
Deployment readiness has not yet been verified for this catalogue entry. Contact us to discuss current scope, release gates, and your requirements.
Who owns this software?
This is owned engineering work from The Baobab, a brand of Fortezza Nuova Enterprise. Deployment and licensing terms are agreed for the relevant product.
Use Rail Schematic Viz in your product
Discuss the capabilities you need, deployment environment, and integration responsibilities. We will confirm current readiness and agree a scope before committing to a release.