Hi Anders thanks for posting on the community! The hierarchal auto layout feature does automatically put the lines at the bottom of shapes. There is not a way to change that default. If you would like to make changes after the Auto Layout has arranged everything that will need to be done manually.

As you have noted if you are linking to a shape that is not directly below the line will go through your shape that is in between. As a workaround if you right click on the shape you can select Arrange > Bring to Front. The shape will then be brought to the front so that the line will be behind it instead. If you are instead hoping to have it go around the shape you will need to make that change manually.

As this is an automated layout feature it is meant to help arrange shapes and lines but manual adjustments may be needed to fit your exact needs. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.

Well then for our use case the auto layout feature is unfortunately useless. We would need to find an alternative product to Lucidchart then.

Is there a fix for this yet?  I am doing a trial of LC right now specifically for this use case and cannot proceed unless this is resolved.  What's the point in linking items if the auto layout doesn't obey the linkage?

Hey Darren

Thank you for keeping this conversation going. The changes to these lines as Shanna mentioned in her post would need to be made manually. You can right-click on the shape that the line is going through and select "Move to Front" or you can manually move the line to go around the shape. 

Again so sorry for any inconvenience this causes you--please feel free to let us know if you have any further questions!

Thank you for the response.  Is this queued up to be fixed in an enhancement?  Our diagram is too complex to be dealing with connectors manually.

Hi Darren 

Unfortunately that is not something that we have the ability to predict. When feature request are provided from our community of users our devs have to prioritize them based on value. We always want to ensure our users have the best experience possible when using our products however these requests do take time. 

Again we sincerely appreciate your ideas and patience as we continue to make Lucidchart the best it can be. Cheers!