# Topology graph

> Read the Graph view to confirm physical, virtual and tieline paths visually, and know which views show live data and which show requests.

The Graph view gives you a visual map of routing topology instead of reading it out of a list: useful for confirming a physical, virtual, or tieline path actually looks the way you expect. It's a diagnostic view: you can look, filter, and inspect, but you can't change a route from here. Before you begin Access to Routing → Graph (only visible when Tielines or Virtual routing is enabled). Choose the right view The graph has four views, shown as tabs across the top: Virtual → Virtual , Virtually Routed Ports , Physical Ports and Tielines . Each requires Tielines or Virtual routing to be enabled, matching whichever concept it visualizes. Physical Ports Physical port bundles per connection, sources on the left and destinations on the right, connected by their currently active routes. Tielines Each cross-router path as a chain: the source, the destination port it is routed to, the Relation (Wire) that carries it to the next router, and onward to the final destination. Built from the routing paths Buttons has persisted as route requests. Virtual → Virtual Live virtual bundle-to-bundle mappings, with each slot of one virtual bundle linked to the slot it maps to. Return slots of reverse-routed bundles are drawn in yellow. Virtually Routed Ports Virtual bundles alongside the physical ports they currently map to: physical sources on the left, the chain of virtual bundles in the middle, and physical destinations on the right. Return feeds of reverse-routed bundles get their own yellow nodes. Know what each view can and can't prove This is the most important thing to get right before you rely on the graph during an incident: Physical Ports reflects genuinely live data: it polls each connection's actively reported source every couple of seconds. This answers "what is routed right now," the same as the Live state described in Understand route status . Tielines is built from persisted route requests (what Buttons is maintaining or expecting for a cross-router path), not a live poll of every device's actual crosspoint state. Treat it the same way Understand route status treats Requests : it shows what Buttons expects, not standalone proof that the physical destination actually reached that state. Neither view shows real signal presence. The "Hide black/none/silence routes" filter only hides sources flagged or named as no-signal: it doesn't detect an actual signal on the wire. Confirm signal presence on the destination device itself, not from this filter. The virtual views are a diagnostic projection of routing state for display only: they don't feed back into how routes are actually resolved or executed. Find, filter and adjust the graph Find in current graph searches the labels of the nodes in the current view. Every word must match, put a phrase in quotes to match it exactly, and start a word with - to exclude it. Press Enter or Shift+Enter to step through the matches. Filter narrows which nodes appear, by Status (Active source, Idle source, Active destination, Idle destination), Tags , Connection or Node . Each filter shows as a chip next to Filter ; select its x to remove it. Display → Labels chooses which label type each node shows (User, Setup, Installation, Ext Custom Label or Name), and Show device name adds the connection name. Display → Physical ports sets Bundle sorting (Alphabetical, Original or Manual), and has Hide black/none/silence routes and Hide unrouted nodes to cut down a busy view. Display → Virtual ports → Bundle physical ports switches the Virtually Routed Ports view between individual and grouped port display. Right-click a node to Hide node . On Physical Ports , you can also Pin position to keep a node where you dragged it. Display → Physical ports has Clear hidden nodes , Clear pinned positions and Auto-layout unpinned to undo these. Pan and zoom with the controls in the bottom-left corner and the mini-map in the bottom-right corner. Nodes are laid out automatically and re-arrange when the topology changes, except nodes you have pinned. Pinned positions are kept in your browser. Save a view Select Save view next to the view tabs, or Display → Save as view… , and give it a name. The saved view stores the current view together with its filters, and appears as its own tab next to the four views. Saved views are stored with your user account. Hover over a saved view's tab and select its x to delete it. If you get stuck What you see What to try A view you expect isn't available. Confirm Tielines or Virtual routing is actually enabled: each view requires one or the other. The Tielines view shows a path that doesn't match what a device is actually doing. This view reflects persisted route requests, not a live poll: check Understand route status for the same distinction applied to individual routes. A route with no visible signal isn't hidden by "Hide black/none/silence routes." That filter only hides sources flagged or named as no-signal: it can't detect an actual missing signal. Check the destination device directly. You can't find a specific port in a large graph. Type part of its label in Find in current graph , or narrow the view with Filter → Connection or Tags . You rearranged nodes and the layout reset. Nodes are re-laid out when the topology changes. On Physical Ports , right-click a node and select Pin position to keep it in place. A node you expect is missing. Check the filter chips next to Filter , and Display → Physical ports for hidden nodes or Hide unrouted nodes . Where to go next Understand route status Configure routing defaults and project requirements