The layered tree layout represents a classical directed tree layout (e.g. with uniform parent placement), which places vertices from the same level in layers. It produces both straight line and orthogonal tree drawings, which is controlled by the OrthogonalEdgeRouting property. The PlugSpacing property controls the spacing between the plugs of a node. You can set a fixed amount of spacing or a proportional spacing, which means that the plugs are distributed along the whole side of the node. The layout satisfies the following aesthetic criterias:

• No edge crossings - edges do not cross each other.
• No vertex-vertex overlaps - vertices do not overlap each other.
• No vertex-edge overlaps - in case of orthogonal edge routing, this criteria is met when the BusBetweenLayers property is set to true.
• Straight line routing - in case the OrthogonalEdgeRouting property is set to false you can consider modifying the PortStyle property, which controls the anchoring of the lines to the vertex boxes.
• Compactness - you can optimize the compactness of the drawing in the tree breadth dimension by setting the CompactBreadth property to true.