Some embodiments of the invention provide a method of identifying global routes for nets in a region of a layout with multiple layers, where each net has a set of routable elements. The method partitions each layer of the region into several sub-regions. For each net, the method then identifies a route that connects the sub-regions that contain the net's set of routable elements. Some of the identified routes have at least one non-Manhattan edge and traverse sub-regions on multiple layers.