Use this when you want to generate detailed parking bays and island configurations on a geometry within a flow, for example laying out a car park within a defined boundary.

Category: Dendrogram

Kind: Operation

Description: Generates parking bays, roads, and islands on a geometry

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
Transform	T	Object	Item	Transform controls (overridden by individual parameters)
Exclusions	E	Feature	List	Features to exclude from the parking lots
No parking zones	N	Feature	List	Areas where no bays are placed (optional)
Special Use Zones	S	Feature	List	Areas that use the special use bay width (optional)

Outputs

Name	Abbreviation	Type	Access	Description
Primary	P[]	Object	List	The primary output
Islands	I[]	Object	List	The islands output
Center Island	C[]	Object	List	The center islands output

Warnings and errors

Message	Cause	Fix
`No parking lots could be generated with the given inputs and parameters.`	The node made no bays and no islands. The shape may be too small or narrow for the bay length, bay width and road width, or exclusions cover it. An internal failure also shows this message.	Make the geometry larger, or lower the bay length, bay width or road width. Check that exclusions and no parking zones do not cover the whole area.

How to

Draw a Rectangle or Polygon
Open the Flow Editor
Select "Quick Transform" and then select "Parking Lots". Click "add flow"
To build it by hand, add the Parking Lots node and the Parking Lots Transform node. Connect the transform's output to the Parking Lots node's T connector. Quick Transform > Parking Lots adds both nodes already connected.
Click “edit defaults” to set the starting values
Edit the settings and outputs in Properties

Want to use a parking flow but forgot to start with one? Just click the add parking bays button in properties after drawing with any parking usage:

A default parking flow is automatically added to the selected geometry, ready for your edits!

Connect the Parking Lots Transform node

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

Parking Lots Transform settings object

The Parking Lots 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 Parking Lots node through the T connector. The object has type set to parkingLotsV2 and the settings inside parameters. The values below are the built-in defaults.

{
  "type": "parkingLotsV2",
  "parameters": {
    "bayLength": 5,
    "bayWidth": 2.8,
    "bayTwist": 0,
    "edgeOffset": 0,
    "islandPeriod": 0,
    "islandSize": 1,
    "roadWidth": 5.8,
    "longEdgeFlag": true,
    "hasEdgeIsland": true,
    "edgeIslandRadius": 1,
    "centerIslandSize": 1,
    "isSymmetrical": true
  }
}

The Parking Lots 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 Parking Lots Transform node and the T connector, and set Property to a path like parameters.bayWidth.

Settings

Choose what Optimize For favors. Bays (the default) fits as many bays as it can. Route keeps the drive road running continuously around inward-pointing corners of the boundary, which can give fewer bays.
Turn on Single Loaded to put one row of bays on each inner lane road instead of a row on both sides, so cars park on one side of the road only. To pave only the parked side, draw the geometry one Road Width plus one Bay Length wide. Center Islands and Open Center Island are unavailable while Single Loaded is on.
Set the Bay Length and Bay Width
Set the Special Use Bay Width (for example, handicap spaces). It matches Bay Width until you change it.
Adjust the Bay Angle to tilt the bays for angled parking. The bay angle does not make bays parallel to the edge. To make parallel bays, change the bay length and width (see Create parallel parking bays).
Set the Road Width of the roads between bays

Turn on Max Run to insert a road after a set length of bays. Set that length with Max Run Length, which is unavailable until Max Run is on. It defaults to 5 bay widths and can't be less than 3 bay widths.

Add islands by setting Island Every to a number of bays (for example, every 10 bays), and set their Island Width
- Islands interrupt runs of bays at that count of bays
Turn on Edge Islands and set the Edge Islands Radius. The radius can't be larger than the bay width.
- Edge islands cap the ends of inner runs of bays
Turn on Center Islands and set the Center Islands Size
- Center islands go between perpendicular facing bays in inner runs
Turn on Open Center Island for drainage or pedestrian access. It needs Center Islands turned on.

Island
Edge Island
Center Island

Open Corners Choose whether each corner has a drive entrance or the bays meet in a mitered corner.
Corner Islands Adds an island to the closed corners. Corner Islands is available only when Edge Islands is on and Open Corners is off.
Align Across Aligns parallel bays and islands from edges and center park lanes all the way across the parking area. May result in fewer bays.
Symmetry Enabled Forces symmetrical alignment on center lanes. May result in fewer bays. When Align Across is on, Symmetry Enabled is checked automatically and can't be changed.
Boundary Road Adds a drive road around the inside of the parking lot boundary, so bays start inside that road. Set its width with Boundary Road Width, which matches Road Width until you change it. Where the boundary road runs alongside a lane road, it replaces that road. If the boundary road is narrower, the lane road keeps its own width.
Open All Edges Opens every boundary edge and overrides the per-edge open and closed handles on the map.

Choose Reference Edge
- Reference Edge changes the direction the inner lanes run.
  Selecting a different reference edge rotates the inner lanes to line up with the edge you pick. Reference Edge does not make bays parallel to that edge.
- When no geometry is selected, for example while editing the flow's defaults, a Starting Edge number field shows instead. Enter the edge number to use as the reference edge.
Click Reset Lane Offset to Auto to put the lanes back in their automatic position after you move them with the center handle. The button reads Lane Offset: Auto when the lanes are already automatic. Choosing a new reference edge also resets the lanes to automatic.

Add an exclusion zone
- Exclusion zones remove parking bays from within the defined boundary and generate spaces along its boundary
- Click to place points. Double click to end the command
- Delete an exclusion zone by clicking the red X
- Add as many exclusion zones as you wish

Add a no-parking zone
- No parking zones remove parking bays from within the defined boundary
- Unlike exclusion zones, no parking zones do not add bays around the edge of the zone
- Delete by clicking the red X
- Add as many as you wish

Add a special use zone
- Special Use zones apply the special use bay width property to an area, and apply a hatch
- Delete a zone by clicking the red X
- Add as many zones as you wish

Add a special lane
- Special lanes are lines that generate rows of bays on either side

Create parallel parking bays

Lay out street-style parallel parking, where cars park end to end along a curb or road, by changing the bay length and width on the Parking Lots Transform node. The node measures bay width along the edge and bay length out from the edge. Enter a width that is longer than the length, and each bay runs along the edge like a parallel parking space.

Select the geometry that has the Parking Lots flow.
In Properties, set the bay Length to the depth of a parallel space, for example 2.5 m (8 ft).
Set the bay Width to the long side of a parallel space, for example 6.5 m (22 ft).

Keep the bay angle at its default. The bay angle tilts bays for angled parking and does not make bays parallel to the edge. Reference Edge does not make bays parallel either.

Advanced Edit Mode

Press Shift + A to enter edit mode.

Red triangle handles: select reference edge

Green/Red Circles: Generate bays on this edge.
- Click the green checkmarks to turn off bays along that edge
- Click the red circle to add the bays back

Center Node Handle (on reference edge): Move bay generation location

Output

The output is a geometry with white parking bay lines. The parkingBayCount property is also applied.