Hi,

You can set the routable connectors to always reroute, but even then you won't get the same nicely layouted diagram, because the layered graph layout algorithm does much more than simply rerouting the edges - it also places them on several busses in order to eliminate edge overlappings, it offsets the start and end plugs in order to eliminate the case in which several edges start and/or end in the same point and much more.

No, there isn't any way to replicate the Layered Graph Layout other than simply using it. It's output may seem simple to the human eye, but for a computer it's extremely complex, actually the Layered Graph Layout is one of the most complex graph layout algorithms. Its complexity, however, is well worth the trouble, because it is not only fast for even large graphs, but it also layouts nicely a large variety of diagrams.