Understanding Diagram Layouts

Diagrammer layout styles are designed to produce aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-understand diagrams for a wide variety of needs. To choose a layout style, click on the button for the active layout style, then select the layout style in the drop-down menu. The following styles are available:

• The Circular Layout style organizes nodes in clusters of related objects.
• The Hierarchical Layout style organizes nodes in precedence relationships, with levels for parent and child object types.
• The Orthogonal Layout style organizes nodes in relationships drawn with horizontal and vertical lines only.
• The Symmetric Layout style (the default) organizes nodes based on symmetries detected in their relationships.
  Note: The symmetric style typically offers the best performance for very large diagrams.
• The Tree Layout style organizes nodes in parent-child relationships, with child nodes arranged on levels farther from the root node than their parents.

Click a layout style button in the drop-down to change the style after a diagram is drawn.