Bit late but if you want the custom layouts we had in Grid to work in Grid2, all you need to do is:

1. Create a new folder in the World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns folder. Call it 'Grid2MyLayout'.
2. Create a new TOC file in that directory called 'Grid2MyLayout.toc'
3. In that new file put this blurb:

## Interface: 30300
## Title: Grid2MyLayout
## Notes: My Custom Layout(s) for Grid2.


## Dependencies: Grid2


Grid2MyLayout.lua

4. Make another file in the same directory called 'Grid2MyLayout.lua'
5. In that file, add this:

Grid2Layout:AddLayout("My By Role Per Group", {
meta = {
raid25 = true,
raid15 = true,
raid10 = true,
raid = true,
party = true,
arena = true,
},
defaults = {
showSolo = true,
showPlayer = true,
sortMethod = "NAME",
unitsPerColumn = 5,
maxColumns = 1,
allowVehicleTarget = true,
},
[1] = {
nameList = "Char1, Char2, Char3, Char4, Char5",
},
})

6. Now open the client and enable the Grid2MyLayout AddOn.
7. Now, open your Grid2 config and go to layouts and select "My By Role Per Group"

You should now see the specific characters you listed in the new config file. If you need to add, remove, etc just do it from that file. There is no GUI option but personally I'd rather edit them in notepad++ anyway. Much cleaner looking.