On Windows you can use "gvedit.exe", but I don't like how the input text files and the graphics are displayed and just recently I encountered an issue where it would not render my *.gv files even they are valid (they rendered using the command line tools). Seemed to be an file encoding issue.
Since a colleague of mine (who does not like using the command line) asked me to setup the "rendering system" on her PC, I was looking for and found a feasible setup:
- Notepad++ - to edit the source files
- NppExec Plugin - to call the command line tools and render the graphics
- SumatraPDF - to display the rendered PDF file
- Download & Install
- Graphviz
- Notepad++
- SumatraPDF (of course you may use a different PDF viewer, just make sure it is able to update the preview when the pdf file changes)
- Goto Plugins -> Plugin Manager -> Show Plugin Manager
- Install the NppExec plugin
- Configure the NppExec plugin (Reference)
- Press F6 (run command) and enter the following script (all in 1 line)
dot "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" -Tpdf -o "$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\$(NAME_PART).pdf"
It calls "dot" from the Graphviz tools (which should be in your system PATH), passes your current Notepad++ file and renders a *.pdf file. You find a full list of available output formats in the documentation.
- Save it as "dot" script
- Update / render the graphics with Ctrl+F6 (run previous command again)
- SumatraPDF will immediately update the graphics so you don't need to close and reopen the generated file.