Use this when you want to generate an apartment building massing from a single line within a flow, for example quickly producing a residential building form.

Category: Dendrogram

Kind: Operation

Description: Dendrogram node for apartment.

Inputs

This node's settings come from the paired Transform node through the T connector. You can't wire a value straight into a single setting. To drive one setting from your flow, override it with a Write Property node between the Transform node and T.

Name	Abbreviation	Type	Access	Description
Input	I	Feature	Item	The input data (must be a line)
Transform	T	Object	Item	Transform controls (overridden by individual parameters)

Outputs

Name	Abbreviation	Type	Access	Description
Features	F[]	Feature	List	The list of main features (dwellings, core, corridor, and balcony)
Apartment	A	Object	Item	Categorized Apartment Features
Points	P[]	Feature	List	The list of points

Warnings and errors

Message	Cause	Fix
`No input provided to apartmentV2`	Nothing is connected to the input, or the connected node returns no geometry.	Connect a line to the input, and check that the upstream node is returning geometry.

How to:

Add the apartment node
Feed in a feature to the I input
The feature must be a line
Add the Apartment Transform node and connect its output to the Apartment node's T connector.
1. Click “Edit Defaults” to set the starting values for the flow
Edit the settings in the Properties Palette

Connect the Apartment Transform node

The Apartment node needs the Apartment Transform node connected to its T connector to use your settings. Without it, the Apartment node runs on Giraffe's built-in default settings, and you can't change any of them in Edit Defaults or the Properties Palette.

Apartment Transform settings object

The Apartment Transform node creates a set of inputs in the Properties Palette for anyone using the flow to fill out. It converts those inputs into a plain JSON object and sends it to the Apartment node through the T connector. The object has type set to apartmentV2 and the settings inside parameters. The values below are the built-in defaults.

{
  "type": "apartmentV2",
  "parameters": {
    "depth": 2,
    "leftDepth": 8,
    "rightDepth": 10,
    "startDepth": 10,
    "endDepth": 7,
    "segmentOffsets": [],
    "areaPattern": [],
    "indexPattern": [],
    "plans": [ ... ]
  }
}

The Apartment Transform settings in the Properties Palette show lengths, areas, and volumes in your project units. The JSON always stores them in meters, square meters, and cubic meters, so a value you write into it with Write Property must use those units too.

To drive one setting from elsewhere in your flow, override it with a Write Property node. Put Write Property between the Apartment Transform node and the T connector, and set Property to a path like parameters.leftDepth.

Settings

Size
- Set corridor width
- Set depth of the right and left sides independently
- Set the start and end depth
Dwellings
- Dwellings are connected to a Usage.
  It is recommended that Dwelling usages include the Dwelling Count (Input) and Dwellings per Level on Usages intended to be used as Units in the apartment flow
- Adjust the unit mix using the sliders

Add another Unit by selecting a usage from the list. Click Add.

Set your dwelling requirements, just like you would in the Usages editor
- Adjust the unit size
- Adjust the mix with inputs or slider
- Set the Balcony alignment, length, and offsets. (Set apartment depth in next step below)
- Delete a unit by clicking the bin

Balcony
- Set the balcony alignment, length, start or end offsets individually for each unit type
- Set the external and internal offsets
- Toggle endcap or split

Set a minimum unit width

The Apartment node sets units by area, so a unit's width depends on its area and the building depth. To set a minimum width for each unit type, build the flow with the Skeleton Editor and Subdivide Rectangles nodes instead. In Subdivide Rectangles, set Mode to width, enter each dwelling's minimum width, and turn on Stretch.

How endcaps work

An endcap is the apartment at an open end of the building line. Giraffe places the endcap past the end of the line, so the building finishes beyond the point you drew. Plan for this when the building has to fit inside a site, a setback, or a set footprint.

The endcap extends past the line by the Start Depth at the line's first point and by the End Depth at its last point. It spans the full width of the building: the left side, the corridor, and the right side.

Giraffe adds an endcap only at an open end. An end that joins another line, like a corner, does not get one.

Giraffe also adds an endcap only when the Start Depth or End Depth is more than half the Corridor Width. At half the Corridor Width or less, Giraffe skips that endcap and the building stops square at the end of the line.

Keep an apartment building inside its footprint

The endcaps of an apartment building extend past each open end of the line by the Start Depth and End Depth. To keep the building inside a footprint, use one of these options:

Stop the line short of the footprint edge by the Start Depth at the first point and the End Depth at the last point.
Set Start Depth and End Depth to half the Corridor Width or less. Giraffe then skips the endcaps and the building ends at the line's endpoints.

Advanced Edit Mode

Use shift + a shortcut to enter advanced edit.

Drag large circles on ends or sides to adjust side and end width
Drag smaller circles between units to adjust unit size
Click and drag center of unit to move it
Hold alt + click and drag on a smaller circle to add a unit

Click “reset pattern” to revert to automatic solve

Examples

Use different unit mixes on different floors

An Apartment node applies one unit mix to the entire building. To give different floors different mixes, give each group of floors its own Apartment node.

The quickest way is to duplicate the flow:

Copy and paste the apartment geometry in place.
Select the copy and change the unit mix with the sliders in the Properties Palette.
Adjust the levels on each geometry to the correct settings for your design

To keep everything in one flow, use a separate Apartment node and Apartment transform for each unit mix:

Open the flow in the Flow Builder.
Add an Apartment node and an Apartment transform for each unit mix you need.
Edit the transform defaults to Rename each Apartment transform so you can tell the mixes apart, for example "Podium mix" and "Tower mix".
Connect the Read Feature node to the input of every Apartment node.
Connect each Apartment transform to its own Apartment node.
Select each Apartment transform and set its unit mix with the sliders in the Properties Palette.

This takes more setup than duplicating the flow. Later changes then happen in one flow.

Wrap apartments around a courtyard

To wrap apartments around a courtyard, draw the apartment line as a closed shape, like a square or other polygon. End the line back at its first point, or draw it so it crosses itself. Giraffe fills each side with units and leaves the middle open as the courtyard. A line that ends at its first point has no open ends, so it gets no endcaps. A self-intersecting line that extends past the crossing point still has open ends, and those ends get endcaps.

The Apartment node has no setting for the courtyard itself. To set the courtyard's usage parametrically within the flow, like Carpark - Multi-Deck, or to remove the units facing into it, build the flow with the Skeleton Editor and Subdivide Rectangles nodes instead.