The layered graph layout strives to minimize the number of crossings between edges and produces a polyline graph drawing. This type of layout is very useful for the arrangement of flow diagrams, since it works well on all types of graphs (including those with self-loops and duplicate edges).

The most important properties are:

• Direction - determines the flow direction of the layout. By default set to TopToBottom.
• EdgeRouting - determines what edge routing is applied.
• NodeRank - specifies the node ranking policy used by the layout. It can be:
  • TopMost - all nodes without incomming edges are assigned to the topmost layer
  • Gravity - layer distribution is done in such a way that the total length of all edges is minimized
  • Optimal - similar to the topmost, but after the initial assignment all nodes fall downwards as much as possible
• LayerAlignment - determines the vertical alignment of the nodes in the layers.