Draw non-overlapping lines between objects

Question

Here is a problem, I found and would be interested in finding first steps to get further in thinking about solutions:

given a set of n objects (rectangles, circles and similar forms), the task to solve is to draw lines to connect some pairs of them (the result should be a kind of flowchart diagram).

The lines should not cross the objects and they should look as simple as possible (shortest pathes between the objects without crossing, as straight as possible (no sharp kinks/bends) in the lines.

I guess this could be a combinatorial optimization poblem. Does there perhaps exist a standard heuristics? I know, that the graphviz/dot language has some kind of heuristics for problems like that, but I dont know, how they work.

Is it a simplex-type optimization problem?

Would it be promising to try reinforcement learning on this task?

Does there propably exist a good approximation algorithm, so one would not need to find exact solutions for the optimal line pathes?