Giraffe is always counting everything. it makes a lot of calculations in the background - ones that are typical to real estate development and design.
To make these calculations work, Giraffe ships with some default properties.
If a geometry or Usage is missing one of these properties, add it with the + (Add Property) button in the properties palette header.
Building Properties
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Type | Sets what kind of geometry this is, such as a building section, dwelling, or 3D shape | Controls which other properties apply. Floor to Floor and Levels only affect the building section, dwelling, and 3D types |
Efficiency | Setting the percentage of occupiable space in a building | Used with gross building area to calculate gross floor area |
Sell efficiency | Setting the percentage of sellable/rentable space in a building | Used with gross building area to calculate net rentable area |
Floor to Floor | Set the height of each level | Used with Levels to generate building heights and calculate building areas |
Levels | Set the number of levels | Used with floor to floor to generate building heights and calculate building areas |
Height | Set a raw geometric height | Overrides floor to floor and levels. Negates building area calculations |
Stack Order | Sets the geometry's order of placement within a building stack | Use to move a geometry higher or lower in a building. A greater number sits higher |
Force Stack | Choose default, always, or never to affect stacking behavior | Change if a geometry stacks on other elements on the same drawing layer |
Base Height | Raises the bottom of the geometry off the ground plane by the amount set | Use to raise a geometry off the ground without an element below to stack on top of |
Depth | Sets the basement depth | Use to establish an underground basement or water depth. Only applies to the basement type and overrides floor to floor and levels |
Slab Thickness | Sets the thickness of each slab or floor | Changes how thick the floors look in 3D |
Top Thickness | Sets the thickness of the top slab | For appearance only. It does not change any area calculations |
Loft | Adds a spine raised to the height property value | Create pitched roofs or ramps |
Patch | Stores a height offset for each point of a polygon | Turns a flat polygon into a sloped 3D surface. Set each point's height from the properties palette |
Patch Mode | Chooses how a patch surface is built: slab or wedge | slab extrudes the patch surface by the geometry's height. wedge projects each point straight down to the base |
Parking Required | Setting the required parking ratio of the building | Set the number of parking spaces required per 100m²/1000ft² of gross floor area |
Visitor Parking Bays | Adds extra required parking spaces to a geometry | Input a number of required visitor spaces for each geometry |
No Facades | Skips facade cost and solar facade analysis for this geometry | The geometry still casts a shadow |
Building ID | Giraffe understands if geometries are in the same building by building id. It is a randomly-generated value, unless overridden. | Giraffe automatically assigns a building id based on the lowest element in the stack. |
General Properties
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Layer | Sets the drawing layer the geometry sits on | Use to organize geometries in the layer palette |
Scenario | Sets the scenario the geometry belongs to | Use to compare different design options in one project |
Flow | Attaches a flow to the geometry | Use to generate geometry or values from a flow |
Dwelling Properties
Dwelling properties hold one value for each unit type.
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Unit Size | The target area of a unit of that type | Unit counts are calculated using net rentable area * mix / size |
Sale Price per Dwelling | The price of each unit type, as a sale price or a monthly rent | Used in analytics to calculate projected revenue or rent. The Residential and Mixed Use templates enter it as monthly rent |
Parking Required | The required parking spaces for the unit type | The required parking is calculated as unit count * parking required. This overrides the area-based Parking Required ratio |
Residents | The estimated occupants of the unit type | The open space per person and parking spaces per person are calculated using Residents |
Unit Mix | The target percentage of the units that are of this type | Unit counts are calculated using net rentable area * mix / size. The mix values must add up to 1 |
Dwelling Count | Sets the number of units of each type by hand | Overrides the calculated unit count for this geometry |
Dwelling Count per level | Chooses whether Dwelling Count is per level or a total | Turn on to treat Dwelling Count as a number for each level |
Parking, Roads, and Landscape Properties
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Parking Provided | Sets how many parking spaces a parking area provides | Set the number of spaces provided per 100m²/1000ft² of gross area |
Road Width | Sets road total width, excluding the footpath | Multiplies by length to calculate pavement coverage |
Footpath Width | Sets sidewalk or path width on each side of the road. | Multiplies by length to calculate pavement coverage |
Cut and Fill | Set an element to interact with terrain | Toggle on to level the ground under the element and create a building pad, adding or subtracting ground works |
Elevation Datum | The height above sea level | Set the datum height of a cut & fill object. In 3D terrain mode, Base Height is relative to this value |
Cut and Fill Offset | The distance horizontally from a cut and fill object before Angle of Repose begins | Set the distance away from a building pad before the ground angles away. Positive is outward, negative is inward |
Angle of Repose | The angle of the ground works up to a cut & fill object | Set the angle of the terrain change between building pads with different elevation datums than the editable terrain. Accepts 0 to 90 degrees |
Drape on Terrain | Toggles whether elements drape on 3D terrain | Toggle on to make a landscape or road element drape along terrain |
Land Use Properties
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Lot # | Set the Lot # for the Precinct app or analytics | Use it to manage parcels in the precinct app |
Floor space ratio (FSR/FAR) and site coverage are calculated values. Giraffe works them out from your geometry and the site area. You do not set them as properties on a geometry.
Visual Properties
Property Name | What it's For | Example |
Color | The main fill color of the geometry | A hex color, such as #8A9BA8 |
Fill Opacity | How see-through the fill is, from 0 to 1 | 0.5 makes the fill half transparent |
Line Color | The color of the geometry's outline or line | A hex color, such as #000000 |
Line Opacity | How see-through the line is, from 0 to 1 | 1 makes the line solid |
Line Width | The width of the line | Ignored while a hairline is forced for the geometry |
Line Cap | The shape of the end of a line: butt, round, or square | round gives a line rounded ends |
Line Join | The shape where line segments meet: miter, round, or bevel | miter gives sharp corners |
Dash | Adds a dash pattern to lines | A comma-separated list, such as 10, 20, 40 |
Start Arrow | Adds an arrowhead at the start of a line | Lines only |
End Arrow | Adds an arrowhead at the end of a line | Lines only |
Start Arrow Angle / End Arrow Angle | The angle of each arrowhead in degrees | 50 |
Start Arrow Length / End Arrow Length | The length of each arrowhead in meters | 3 |
Point Radius | The size of a point on the map | For appearance only |
Hide Floors | Hides the floors on the map | Turn on for a cleaner massing view |
Hide Verticals | Hides the vertical walls of an extruded geometry | Only applies when No Facades is on |
Shiny | Makes the geometry shiny in 3D | Turn on for a reflective finish |
Bevel | Rounds the top edges of an extruded geometry | 0 gives sharp edges |
BevelSegments | The number of segments in a bevel | More segments give a smoother bevel |
File 3D GLTF | Displays an uploaded GLTF model on the map | Use Scale and Rotation to adjust it |
Image | Displays an uploaded image on the map | Use for site plans or other reference images |
Scale | Scales a 3D model or block instance | A multiplier. 1 is the original size |
Rotation | Rotates a 3D model or block instance | Degrees |
Mirror | Mirrors a 3D model or block instance | Turn on to flip it |
Primitive | Displays a parametric shape at a point: box, sphere, cylinder, cone, pyramid, or wedge | Uses the Scale, Rotation, and Mirror properties |
Offset | Offsets the shape | Positive is outward, negative is inward |
Offset Direction | Chooses whether a line offsets to the left, right, or both sides | left |
Guideline | Shows a dashed guide line around shapes with this usage | Use it to snap to or create new shapes from |
Loft | Adds a spine raised to the height property value | Create pitched roofs or ramps |
Corner Type | Rounds (fillet) or cuts (chamfer) the shape's corners | fillet |
Corner Radius | The size of each rounded or cut corner | 1 |
Marker and Popup Properties
Property Name | What it's For | Example |
Marker | Adds a map marker to the geometry, such as a label, text, or icon | Use to call out a building name or a key number on the map |
Popup | Adds a popup to the geometry | Use to show more detail when someone clicks the geometry |
Analytics Properties
Urban Analytics doesn't count or total any of the properties in this table. To use them, create a custom calculation in Analytics.
Properties in the Analytics category are typically custom user-generated properties. Some custom properties ship with Giraffe templates by default to make cost calculations easier.
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Hard Cost | The hard construction cost per unit of area | In Analytics, multiply by area to estimate construction cost. Urban doesn't count it. |
Soft Cost | The soft cost per unit of area | In Analytics, multiply by area to estimate fees, permits, and other soft costs. Urban doesn't count it. |
Net Rent | Rent per unit of area (ft² or m²) | In Analytics, multiply by area to estimate rental income. Urban doesn't count it. |
Facade Cost | The facade material cost per unit of area | In Analytics, multiply by facade area to estimate facade cost. Urban doesn't count it. |
Jobs | For employee counts | In Analytics, add up across geometries to count total jobs. Urban doesn't count it. |
Area per Job | For employee counts | In Analytics, divide floor area by it to estimate job numbers. Urban doesn't count it. |
Maintenance Cost | For anything with a maintenance cost - typically landscape/pools | In Analytics, add up across geometries to estimate ongoing maintenance. Urban doesn't count it. |
Canopy Radius | For landscape | Sets the size of trees for canopy cover. Urban doesn't use it. |
Keys | For hotel uses | In Analytics, add up across geometries to count hotel rooms. Urban doesn't count it. |
Area per Key | For hotel uses | In Analytics, divide floor area by it to estimate room numbers. Urban doesn't count it. |
Nightly rate | For Hotel uses | In Analytics, multiply by keys to estimate hotel revenue. Urban doesn't count it. |
Classroom Area | For education uses | In Analytics, divide floor area by it to estimate classroom numbers. Urban doesn't count it. |
Area per Bed | For medical usages | In Analytics, divide floor area by it to estimate bed numbers. Urban doesn't count it. |
Evaluated Properties
Geometric and Calculated properties cannot be edited in the Properties Palette. These are calculated values based on properties settings and geometric calculations of the selected feature. To review the calculated values of a feature, open the JSON Editor app and check Show evaluated.
Geometric Properties
Property Name | What it's For | How it's used |
Area | The area of the raw feature polygon | Used with efficiencies and levels for building area metrics |
Perimeter | The perimeter length of the raw polygon | Used for facade calculations, for instance |
Length | The length of the raw polyline | Used to calculate the size of line-based geometries, like roads |
Site Area | The area within the site boundary polygon | Calculate FAR, site coverage, etc. |
Calculated Properties
Property Name | What it's For | How it's calculated |
Gross Building Area | Find the gross area of all geometries in one building | Area * Levels, added up across every geometry with the same Building ID |
Gross floor area | Find the occupiable area | Area * levels * efficiency |
Net Saleable Area | Find the rentable/saleable area | Area * levels * sell efficiency |
Top | Find the top of a building | Height + height (etc) of all elements in a stack |
Height (calculated) | Find the height of a geometry | Levels * Floor to Floor |
Parking Required | Set the required parking spaces | |
Parking Provided / Parking Bay Count | Calculates the parking provided in a parking lot | |
Parking Provided per level | Calculated the parking per level | |
Dwelling Count | Calculates the dwellings | |
Dwelling Count per Level | Calculates the dwellings per level | |
GFA:NRA | The ratio of gross floor area to net rentable area | Gross floor area /Net Rentable Area |