Treat cells is swimlanes as groups

Question

When nodes are assigned to cells inside swim lanes, the assignment is a mere visual one. This means a new layout will cause loss of this assignment. It would make more sense to treat the individual rows/columns/cells of swimlanes as groups. The swimlanes are then just a visual wrapper for these groups.

Answer 1

Actually, this is not completely true.

1. The assignment is not a visual one, but a geometric one. I.e. the coordinate of a node's center determines to which swimlane of its parent table the node belongs.
2. There are layout algorithms that respect swimlane assignments (see "Layout" -> "Swimlane"). Moreover, due to the way the layout algorithms work internally, even treating "the individual rows/columns/cells of swimlanes as groups" would mean you would have to use a dedicated swimlane layout algorithm for the swimlane assignment to be respected.

By the way, the (non-swimlane) hierarchic layout algorithm actually offers an option to treat top-level groups as swimlanes (see option "Treat Groups as Swimlanes" on tab "Swimlanes" in the hierarchic layout settings).