Visual Trees - banisterious/obsidian-charted-roots GitHub Wiki

Visual Trees

Generate visual family tree diagrams in multiple formats: interactive Canvas files, hand-drawn Excalidraw diagrams, printable PDFs, or editable ODT documents.

Table of Contents

Overview

Charted Roots provides a unified tree generation wizard that supports four output formats:

Output Description Best For
Canvas Interactive Obsidian canvas file Exploration, linking to notes, editing
Excalidraw Hand-drawn style diagram Annotation, drawings, SVG/PNG export
PDF Printable tree diagram Sharing, printing, archiving
ODT Editable document format Further editing in word processors

All formats share the same person selection and tree type steps, then branch into format-specific options.

Opening the Tree Wizard

From Control Center:

  1. Open Control Center (Ctrl/Cmd + P → "Charted Roots: Open Control Center")
  2. Go to the Visual Trees tab in the Output group
  3. Click New Tree button

From Statistics Dashboard:

  1. Open Statistics Dashboard
  2. Scroll to Visual Trees section
  3. Click any tree type (Pedigree, Descendant, Hourglass)

From Context Menu:

  1. Right-click on a person note
  2. Select Charted Roots → Generate Tree

Wizard Steps

Step 1: Select Root Person

Search and select the person who will be the root of your tree.

  • Search: Type in the search box to filter by name
  • Sort: Use dropdown to sort by name, birth year, or death year
  • Filter: Filter by family group, collection, or universe
  • Birth/death years appear next to names for identification

Click a person to select them, then click Next.

Step 2: Choose Tree Type

Select the type of tree to generate:

Type Icon Description
Full Tree Hourglass Both ancestors and descendants from root
Ancestors Pedigree Parents, grandparents, etc. (upward)
Descendants Downward tree Children, grandchildren, etc. (downward)

Configure generation limits:

  • Ancestor generations: How many generations up (parents, grandparents, etc.)
  • Descendant generations: How many generations down (children, grandchildren, etc.)
  • Include spouses: Show spouse relationships

Step 3: Select Output Format

Choose your output format:

Format Features
Canvas Interactive pan/zoom, links to person notes, editable, re-layoutable
Excalidraw Hand-drawn style, annotations, SVG/PNG export, editable drawings
PDF Printable, shareable, styled boxes and lines, multiple page sizes
ODT Editable in word processors, customizable formatting

After selecting, the wizard branches into format-specific steps:

  • Canvas and Excalidraw share similar options (preview, styling)
  • PDF and ODT share similar options (page size, node content)

Canvas/Excalidraw Path

Options Step:

  • Scope options: Include step-parents, adoptive parents, filter by collection/place/universe
  • Style options: Color scheme, edge styles, spouse edge display
  • Privacy protection: Enable privacy for living persons (see Privacy Options below)

Preview Step:

  • Interactive preview with pan and zoom
  • Tree statistics (people count, generations, edges)
  • Privacy-protected persons count (when privacy enabled)
  • Verify layout before generating

Excalidraw Style Step (Excalidraw only):

  • Drawing style: Architect (clean lines), Artist (slightly rough), or Cartoonist (hand-drawn)
  • Font family: Virgil (handwritten), Cascadia (code), or system fonts
  • Fill style: Solid, Hachure (diagonal lines), or Cross-hatch
  • Stroke style: Solid, Dashed, or Dotted lines
  • Node content: Name only, Name + dates, or Name + dates + places

Output Step:

  • Set filename (.canvas or .excalidraw.md)
  • Choose save folder
  • Option to open file after generation

Excalidraw-specific features:

  • Hand-drawn aesthetic for a more informal look
  • Smart connectors that adapt when you move elements
  • Wiki links on nodes for navigation back to person notes
  • Spouse relationships styled with dashed lines
  • Add annotations and drawings after generation
  • Export to SVG or PNG via Excalidraw's native export
  • Requires the Excalidraw plugin

PDF/ODT Path

Options Step:

  • Page size: Letter, A4, Legal, Tabloid, A3
  • Orientation: Portrait or Landscape
  • Node content: Name only, with dates, with dates and places
  • Color scheme: Default (gender-based), Grayscale, Generational
  • Large tree handling: Auto-scale, increase page size, or limit generations

Output Step:

  • Set document title
  • Summary of selections
  • Click Generate to download

ODT-specific features:

  • Open and edit in LibreOffice, Microsoft Word, or Google Docs
  • Customize fonts, colors, and formatting after generation
  • Add additional content around the tree diagram

Tree Types Explained

Full Tree (Hourglass)

Shows both ancestors above the root person and descendants below:

  • Root person in the center
  • Parents and grandparents flow upward
  • Children and grandchildren flow downward
  • Best for showing a person's complete family context

Ancestors (Pedigree)

Traditional pedigree chart showing only ancestors:

  • Root person at the bottom (or left in horizontal layout)
  • Parents, grandparents, great-grandparents branching upward
  • Binary branching (each person has 2 parents)

Descendants

Inverted pedigree showing only descendants:

  • Root person at the top
  • Children, grandchildren branching downward
  • Can show multiple children per generation

Canvas Layout Algorithms

When generating canvas output, choose a layout algorithm:

Algorithm Description Best For
Standard Family-chart library layout with spouse handling Most trees (< 50 people)
Compact 50% tighter spacing Large trees (50+ people)
Timeline Chronological by birth year Visualizing when people lived
Hourglass Root centered, ancestors up, descendants down Person-focused context

Privacy Options

Canvas and Excalidraw generation supports privacy protection for living persons.

Enabling Privacy Protection

  1. In the Canvas Options step, expand the Privacy protection section
  2. Enable Apply privacy protection to living persons
  3. Choose a format:
Format Description
Text node Living persons shown as text boxes with obfuscated names
File node Keeps clickable file link (reveals identity in canvas JSON)

How It Works

When privacy protection is enabled:

  • Obfuscated names: Uses your display format setting ("Living", "Private", initials, etc.)
  • Text nodes include wikilinks: [filename](/banisterious/obsidian-charted-roots/wiki/filename) links for navigation back to original notes
  • Hidden format: Completely excludes living persons from the canvas
  • Preview shows count: See how many persons will be privacy-protected before generating

What Privacy Protection Does NOT Do

Canvas privacy protection reduces casual visibility but has important limitations:

  • Canvas files store data in plain JSON (viewable by anyone with file access)
  • Wikilinks in text nodes contain original filenames
  • Relationship edges remain, showing family structure
  • Protection is applied at generation time only

For details on limitations, see Privacy & Security.

PDF/ODT Options

Page Sizes

Size Dimensions Use Case
Letter 8.5 × 11 in Standard US paper
A4 210 × 297 mm Standard international
Legal 8.5 × 14 in Extended US format
Tabloid 11 × 17 in Large format US
A3 297 × 420 mm Large format international

Color Schemes

  • Default: Males in blue/green tones, females in purple/pink tones
  • Grayscale: Black and white for printing
  • Generational: Different colors per generation level

Large Tree Handling

For trees that exceed the selected page size:

  • Auto-scale: Shrink content to fit (may reduce readability)
  • Auto page size: Automatically use larger paper
  • Limit generations: Reduce depth to fit selected size

Next Steps