Orthogonal drawings with few layers

In this paper, we study 3-dimensional orthogonal graph drawings. Motivated by the fact that only a limited number of layers is possible in VLSI technology, and also noting that a small number of layers is easier to parse for humans, we study drawings where one dimension is restricted to be very small. We give algorithms to obtain point-drawings with 3 layers and 4 bends per edge, and algorithms to obtain box-drawings with 2 layers and 2 bends per edge. Several other related results are included as well. Our constructions have optimal volume, which we prove by providing lower bounds.