How to Change Diagram Layout

This article explains how to change the layout of a diagram so that you can control how your entities and relationships are displayed visually.

Before You Start

Make sure you have created a diagram and are viewing it. If you haven't, see How to Create Diagrams.

Quick Steps

Click the layout status button at the top of the toolbar — it reads Auto-layout, Manual-layout, or similar. See Understanding Auto-layout and Manual-layout for what these mean.
A panel drops down with Link Routing, Connector, and Direction — plus an Optimise section for extra tidying tools.
While your diagram is in Auto-layout, changes here apply right away. In Manual-layout, a change is recorded but needs a refresh to take effect — the panel tells you when.

Layout Options Explained

Link Routing

Link Routing controls how relationship lines connect entities. There are two options:

Direct — lines that bend around nodes instead of crossing through them. The default for new diagrams.
Tracks — right-angle routing, entering and leaving each entity from a consistent side so the diagram reads as clearly layered.

Both are smart: once you switch to one, dragging an entity re-routes the links connected to it automatically. You don't need to manually refresh the diagram after moving something — the lines follow.

Optimise

The Optimise section offers extra tools for tidying a busy diagram. They take effect the next time the diagram lays itself out (for example, after clicking Refresh or when the diagram structure changes):

Untangle — reduces crossed links caused by entities sharing the same connections, such as two joint shareholders of the same companies. If it can't find an improvement, the layout is left unchanged. See Untangle for details.
Unzip rows — splits a crowded row of entities into stacked rows, trading width for height. Useful for large corporate groups with many entities at one level. You can choose how many rows to split each one into. See Unzip Rows for details.
Merge links — bundles links that share a source or target entity into a common segment near that entity, reducing clutter. Only available with Tracks routing, since it works with the right-angle tracks that routing mode creates. See Merge Links for details.

Connector

Connector controls how relationship lines are drawn. The options are the same regardless of your routing choice:

Rounded — softer bends.
Straight — sharper, simpler lines.

Direction

Direction controls which way relationship arrows point across the diagram. Choose from four directions — left, right, up, or down. For example, selecting down causes all relationship arrows to cascade downwards.

The best way to get a feel for these options is to try them out.

The Refresh Buttons

At the top of the panel, a Refresh row offers three buttons, each rebuilding a different part of the diagram:

Layout — rebuilds entity positions and every relationship line. The full fresh start.
Links — rebuilds relationship lines only, leaving entities where you put them. Use this when the lines look tangled but the entities are right.
Labels & sizes — returns relationship labels and entity sizes to their defaults, leaving positions and lines alone.

Each button is green when that part of the diagram has nothing changed by hand — clicking it costs you nothing — and amber when clicking will discard hand-made changes. Because the colour tells you up front, these act immediately without asking you to confirm.

See Understanding Auto-layout and Manual-layout for the full detail, including why editing a relationship line lights up both Links and Layout.

What You'll See

While in Auto-layout, switching Link Routing, Connector, or Direction updates the diagram right away, and Optimise settings apply the next time the diagram lays itself out. While in Manual-layout, these changes are staged instead — the panel shows a note that you need to refresh to apply them. See Understanding Auto-layout and Manual-layout.

There's no separate save step — every change autosaves. To discard your manual positions and edited lines and start from a clean, generated diagram, use Refresh ▸ Layout.

Tips

There is no Undo. A refresh can't be reverted, so check the button's colour first — amber means you'll lose hand-made changes.
Reach for the narrowest refresh. Links leaves your entity positions untouched; Layout rebuilds everything.
Links follow their entities. With Direct or Tracks, moving or resizing an entity redraws the links connected to it, so there's no need to re-tidy them by hand. Links you have shaped yourself keep their shape.

Help & Documentation