  This paper describes substantial advances in the analysis (parsing) of
diagrams using constraint grammars. The addition of set types to the grammar
and spatial indexing of the data make it possible to efficiently parse real
diagrams of substantial complexity. The system is probably the first to
demonstrate efficient diagram parsing using grammars that easily be retargeted
to other domains. The work assumes that the diagrams are available as a flat
collection of graphics primitives: lines, polygons, circles, Bezier curves and
text. This is appropriate for future electronic documents or for vectorized
diagrams converted from scanned images. The classes of diagrams that we have
analyzed include x,y data graphs and genetic diagrams drawn from the biological
literature, as well as finite state automata diagrams (states and arcs). As an
example, parsing a four-part data graph composed of 133 primitives required 35
sec using Macintosh Common Lisp on a Macintosh Quadra 700.
