How can I make this go downward instead of to the right?

[StingyJack]

I would expect at some point this would stop going to the right when creating shapes, but it keeps going on to infinity.

The layout I am trying to get would be something closer to this.

Actors
 Actor1
 Actor2
 Actor3

Note1
Note2

But it ends up looking like this and causing lots of scroll. I did try the #direction:down but it doesnt seem to have an effect. Can you point me in the right direction?

Actors 
Actor1      Actor2        Actor 3       ReallyLongNote        ReallyReallyReallyLongNote  

The code

#bgColor:white
#.actorstyle: dashed

[<frame>Actors|
[<actor> Requestor]
[<actor> Fiscal Approver]
[<actorstyle> Tech Approver]
]

[<note> A Requestor is someone who needs work done; and composes a partially complete plan to accomplish goals]
[<note> An Approver is someone who reviews the; submitted plan and determines viability]

[skanaar]

The #direction directive controls the direction of the relations - (the arrows).

#direction: down actually means that arrows go vertically, and peers are placed horizontally. As you only have peers and no relations you should try #direction: right.

[StingyJack]

The #direction:right does align them as described above. Thanks!

Are there any other controls for layout? I'd be looking specifically to influence the layout contents of frames with something like direction, yet have frames themselves align differently.

[skanaar]

All directives are global so one cannot have a different layout style within a child frame.

Note: I'm the author of nomnoml and not really associated with vscode-nomnoml