Even a single node can be used to create a group. This feature can be used to collapse huge nodes into something manageable or to hide a group that consists of one node.
After creating a group, IDA automatically refreshes the graph layout. If a custom layout was present, it is not applied to the reduced graph. However, the existing custom layout is not destroyed and will be re-used as soon as the user switches to the full graph by deleting the group or uncollapsing it.
The node groups can be nested: synthetic nodes can be used to create other groups. This feature allows reducing the graph into a single node. Each node can belong to only one group at a time.
Groups can be uncollapsed to display the original node content. The node frames of the current uncollapsed group (the one with the mouse pointer) are displayed with a special color. The default group frame color is yellow. This way, the existing uncollapsed groups can be visualized by hovering the mouse over the graph nodes.
There are also commands to collapse and uncollapse all groups in the graph. They are available from the right click menu.
To edit the contents of synthetic nodes, use the 'set node text' button on the node title. The 'rename' command can be used too.
IDA automatically remembers the graph groups and their state for each function.
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