Visualizing fault trees

tidyfault builds fault-tree plots on top of ggplot2 and igraph. The workhorse is illustrate(), which lays out nodes and edges; the plot() method returns a ggplot object you can extend.

Database example

Use type = "all" to draw gates and basic events together:

library(tidyfault)
library(ggplot2)

data("db_nodes")
data("db_edges")

gg_db <- illustrate(nodes = db_nodes, edges = db_edges, type = "all")
plot(
  gg_db,
  gate_fill = c(top = "#382a54", and = "#395d9c", or = "#3eb4ad", "basic event" = "#def5e5")
)

What illustrate() returns

illustrate() returns a list with components used by plot() (node positions, edge paths, gate polygons). You can inspect gg_db$nodes or add ggplot layers on top of plot(gg_db).

IT security example (larger tree)

The bundled IT security tree (it_security_nodes, it_security_edges) uses type = "both" to emphasize gate structure and basic events:

data("it_security_nodes")
data("it_security_edges")

gg_sec <- illustrate(
  nodes = it_security_nodes,
  edges = it_security_edges,
  type = "both"
)
plot(
  gg_sec,
  gate_fill = c(top = "#382a54", and = "#395d9c", or = "#3eb4ad", "basic event" = "#def5e5")
)

Workflow tip

Typical order:

  1. Curate and analyze with the core workflow vignette.
  2. Use illustrate() → plot() whenever you need to communicate structure to collaborators.