This paper presents design method for a cross-layer layout of cable-bracing inerter system for structural seismic response control. The seismic excitation was modeled as the Kainai-Tajimi spectrum， a unified state space equation was constructed， and the direct random analysis of the linear system was carried out to obtain the system response statistics. The layout efficiency is used to determine the layout position of the inerter system. Considering the force of inerter system influences the cost of the inerter system and the additional stress on the structural column， the force of inerter system is taken as an economic index. Considering the correlation between the structural displacement response and acceleration response and the structural performance， the structural displacement response and acceleration response are taken as the performance index. Using multi-objective optimization of design parameters， the Pareto front can be obtained to guide design and compare different layout methods. Finally， a 10-story benchmark is used to analyze the damping effect and verify that the cross-layer distributed inerter system is superior to the general inter-layer distributed inerter system.