Okay, I have figured this out and here is the solution in case anybody else wants to do something like this:
1. create a very simple dot src block: #+begin_src org ,#+name: generate-graph ,#+begin_src dot :var graph="digraph {}" :file graph.pdf $graph ,#+end_src #+end_src 2. call the original tables -> graph block with a :post command to invoke this new block: #+begin_src org ,#+call: graph-from-tables(options="rankdir=LR;",nodes=subtasks-table[2:-1],graph=dependency-table[2:-1]) :exports results :results file :post generate-graph[:results file :exports results :file dependency-graph.pdf](graph=*this*) #+end_src This works like a charm. There are probably superfluous settings but this over-specified combination does what I want! Sorry for all the noise. As always, power comes with complexity and babel is definitely powerful. If org is the killer app for emacs, then babel is the killer app for org! thanks, eric -- : Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 25.0.90.1, Org release_8.3.3-565-g4f499f