Bandage is a GUI program that allows users to interact with the assembly graphs made by de novo assemblers Velvet and SPAdes.

De novo assembly graphs contain assembled contigs (nodes) but also the connections between those contigs (edges), which are not easily accessible to users. Bandage visualises assembly graphs, with connections, using graph layout algorithms. Nodes in the drawn graph, which represent contigs, can be automatically labelled with their ID, length or depth. Users can interact with the graph by moving, labelling and colouring nodes. Sequence information can also be extracted directly from the graph viewer. By displaying connections between contigs, Bandage opens up new possibilities for analysing de novo assemblies that are not possible by looking at contigs alone.

More information and screenshots are on the Bandage website: rrwick.github.io/Bandage

Bandage's help is built into the program. Throughout the UI, you will find these help icons next to controls and settings:

Click on these icons to read a description of how to use that element of Bandage.

Compiled 64-bit binaries for Linux, OS X and Windows are available in the GitHub 'Releases' section and from the Bandage website.

The following instructions successfully build Bandage on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 14.04:

1. Ensure the package lists are up-to-date: sudo apt-get update
2. Install prerequisite packages: sudo apt-get install build-essential git qtbase5-dev
3. Prepare the OGDF library:
4. Download the OGDF code (2012.07 Sakura release) from www.ogdf.net and unzip.
5. Open a terminal in the OGDF directory.
6. Create the Makefile: ./makeMakefile.sh
7. Compile the library: make
8. Download the Bandage code from GitHub: git clone https://github.com/rrwick/Bandage.git
9. Ensure that the Bandage directory and the OGDF directory are stored in the same parent directory.
10. Open a terminal in the Bandage directory.
11. Set the environment variable to specify that you will be using Qt 5, not Qt 4: export QT_SELECT=5
12. Run qmake to generate a Makefile: qmake
13. Build the program: make
14. Bandage should now be an executable file.
15. Optionally, copy the program into /usr/local/bin: sudo make install. The Bandage build directory can then be deleted.
16. Optionally, delete the OGDF directory.

If you download and run the Mac binary, you may receive a warning stating that Bandage 'can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.' Right click on the file and select 'Open' to override this warning.

The following instructions successfully build Bandage on OS X 10.7 (Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.9 (Mavericks) and 10.10 (Yosemite):

1. Install Xcode, along with the Xcode Command Line Tools.
2. Install Qt 5

• For OS X 10.8 and later this is most easily done using Homebrew: brew.sh. Install the Qt 5 package with this command: brew install qt5
• For OS X 10.7 (or if the Homebrew install fails), it will be necessary to instead download and install the Qt SDK: www.qt.io/download-open-source. The disk space required can be greatly reduced by unticking the iOS and Android options in the Qt installer.

3. Prepare the OGDF library:
4. Download the OGDF code (2012.07 Sakura release) from www.ogdf.net and unzip.
5. In the OGDF directory, edit the makeMakefile.config file. In the 'VERSIONS' section, add -DOGDF_MEMORY_MALLOC_TS to both the debug and release lines so they look like this: * debug = -g3 -O0 -DOGDF_DEBUG -DOGDF_MEMORY_MALLOC_TS * release = -O2 -DOGDF_MEMORY_MALLOC_TS
6. Open a terminal in the OGDF directory.
7. Create the Makefile: ./makeMakefile.sh
8. Compile the library: make
9. Download the Bandage code from GitHub: git clone https://github.com/rrwick/Bandage.git
10. Ensure that the Bandage directory and the OGDF directory are stored in the same parent directory.
11. Open a terminal in the Bandage directory.
12. Run qmake to generate a Makefile:

• On OS X 10.7 and 10.8, it is first necessary to remove this line from the Bandage.pro file, CONFIG += C++11.
• If Qt was install with Homebrew, this command will work: /usr/local/opt/qt5/bin/qmake
• If Qt was installed using the Qt installer, qmake will be located here: QT_INSTALL_DIRECTORY/QT_VERSION/clang_64/bin/qmake

8. Build the program: make
9. Bandage should now be an application bundle.
10. Optionally, copy the Bandage application bundle into the 'Applications' folder and delete the Bandage build directory.
11. Optionally, delete the OGDF directory.

Building Bandage in Windows is more challenging than in Linux or OS X, but it can be done. If you would like to, feel free to contact me (Ryan) at rrwick@gmail.com and I'll do my best to help you out!

1. Open a Bandage window.
2. Load a graph file using the 'File' menu, either a LastGraph file from Velvet or a FASTG file from SPAdes. For large graph files, this may take a few seconds or more.
3. Click the 'Draw graph' button now to visualise the entire graph.

• Due to the stochastic nature of the graph layout algorithm, clicking the 'Draw graph' button again will redraw the graph with nodes in different positions.
• By changing the scope from 'Entire graph' to 'Around nodes' or 'Around BLAST hits', it is possible to draw only a subsection of the graph. The specified nodes will be drawn, along with all nodes within the given distance. For example, a distance of zero will draw only the specified nodes, a distance of one will draw the specified nodes and their immediate neighbours, etc.

• Single nodes are the default setting. This is where only positive nodes are displayed, not negative nodes (the reverse complement nodes).
• Double nodes show nodes and their reverse complement as two separate objects with arrow heads to indicate direction. This style can be useful for deciphering particular complex regions or extracting strand-specific sequences.

Bandage is run from the command line using this usage: Bandage <command> [options]

Type Bandage --help to see general help and Bandage <command> --help to see help for that particular command. The --helpall option will show all possible Bandage settings that can be specified on the command line.

Command line usage on Linux is straightforward. Either run Bandage from a particular directory (e.g. ./Bandage or ~/programs/Bandage) or copy it to a directory in your path to run it simply using Bandage.

Bandage for Mac is packaged as an application bundle which is actually a directory. To run Bandage via the command line, you must call the executable that is contained in the bundle: <path>/Bandage.app/Contents/MacOS/Bandage

Command line support is only partially functional on Windows. The program can be called with commands and options, and it should run correctly. But since Windows views it as a GUI application, not a command line appltication, there will be no output to the console.

Note that on a Mac, the Command key is used instead of the Ctrl key in the below instructions.

• Click on any node or edge to select it.
• Holding Ctrl while clicking on nodes or edges adds them to the selection.
• Click and drag to select large numbers of nodes and edges.

• Left click and drag on any node to move it. For short nodes, this will move the entire node. For long nodes, this will move the region of the node near the mouse cursor.
• Right click and drag on any node to move it one piece at a time. This is useful for fine tuning the shape of a graph or for rotating short nodes.
• Selected nodes are moved in their entirety when dragged. If multiple nodes are selected, they will all be moved together when dragged.

• Ctrl+mouse wheel will zoom the view in to and out from the location of your mouse cursor.
• Ctrl+click and drag with the left mouse button will pan the view.
• Ctrl+click and drag with the right mouse button will rotate the view.

• It is first necessary to click in the viewport (or use tab until it is selected) so it will receive keyboard input.
• Plus and minus keys will zoom in and out.
• Arrow keys will pan the viewport horizontally and vertically.
• Shift+plus and shift+minus will rotate the view clockwise and anti-clockwise.

The structure of the graph is highly dependant on the k-mer size used for assembly. Small k-mers result in shorter contigs but with lots of connections, while large k-mers can result in longer contigs but with fewer connections.

If your graph consists of many separate disconnected subgraphs (i.e. there are many small groups of contigs that have no connections to the rest of the graph), then your k-mer size may be too large. Alternatively, if your graph is connected (i.e. all contigs are tied together in a single graph structure) but is very dense and tangled, then your k-mer size may be too small.

When assembling 100 bp reads in Velvet, a k-mer of 51 would be a good starting point, and then adjust up or down as needed. SPAdes conducts assembly multiple times using different k-mers, so you can look at the FASTG files for each assembly (in folders named like K21, K33, etc.) to find the best graph for viewing in Bandage.

New contributors are welcome! If you're interested or have ideas, please contact me (Ryan) at rrwick@gmail.com.

Version 0.6.0 - new features, including command line functionality

Version 0.5.6 - bug fixes

Version 0.5.5 - bug fixes

Version 0.5.4 - bug fixes

Version 0.5.3 - bug fixes

Version 0.5.2 - performance improvements

Version 0.5.1 - bug fixes

Version 0.5.0 - new features, including Trinity support

Version 0.4.2 - bug fixes

Version 0.4.1 - bug fixes

Version 0.4.0 - new features, including BLAST integration

Version 0.3.0 – initial release on GitHub

GNU General Public License, version 3