How do I auto-layout boxes on a flowchart?

问题:

I have some data that represents a flowchart. (A bunch of Jira statuses and their transitions to other statuses.)

I also have a crude way to position each flowchart item on an A4 page in an OpenOffice Draw document. (Though better suggestions welcome for that.)

However, I'd prefer not to have to output a line of boxes and re-arrange them by hand, especially since I might need to re-generate the flowchart several times.

This seems like a common problem, so there must be existing algorithms/techniques that can analyse several items (and the links between them) and do a decent job of placing them in good positions.

Any suggestions on how best to do this?