Methods and systems are provided for automatically arranging graphical representations of objects on a canvas. Optionally, the automatic arrangement of the graphical representation of the object may be performed in an on demand, multi-tenant database as part of a tool for creating and displaying schema. A data object with more connections to other data objects may tend to be placed closer to other objects, where as data objects with fewer connections may tend to be placed further apart. The algorithm for placement is based on computations of pseudo-forces between objects. The pseudo force on an object from all other objects is calculated in a given time step and when the force is less than a threshold value, the positions of the objects is updated based on the forces. When the computed displacements are less than a threshold, the objects are in equilibrium.