Package the work your team repeats on every deal, like a standard usage set, a massing flow, or a feasibility layout, so anyone can add it to a project in one click. A content pack, or pack, is a saved, shareable bundle of Giraffe content stored in the Content Library. Packs belong to a workspace and can be shared with people, teams, or made public.
Most of what you find on the Workspace and Marketplace tabs of the Content Library comes as content packs. Your team's standard usages, flows, and layouts reach you as workspace packs. Giraffe's ready-made content reaches you as Marketplace packs.
A pack's category sets what it can hold. The Content Pack Categories article lists each category and its contents. The Create a Content Pack article covers every field a pack has.
Pack listings
Packs show as listings on the Workspace and Marketplace tabs and in My Content. Each listing shows the pack's thumbnail, name, and tags. Click a tag to show only packs with that tag.
A listing shows Get for packs you can use and Edit for packs you can edit.
Click a listing to open the pack's details. On the Workspace and Marketplace tabs, the details open over the library. In My Content, they open in place, and a breadcrumb takes you back.
A pack's detail view
The top of the detail view shows the pack's thumbnail, name, ID, and category. A Public badge shows when the pack is public. Click the star to add the pack to your Favorites.
Click Import All to add everything in the pack to your project.
The Contents tab previews what's in the pack. The Metadata tab shows the category, the created and last changed dates, the creator, the units, and the tags. It also shows a demo video link and a creator website link when the pack has them.
Pack editors see a ••• menu with Edit Contents. Pack admins also see Share and Delete.
Templates vs content packs
A template and a content pack both save your standard content so you can reuse it. They differ in when you use them and what they carry.
A template starts a new project. When you create a project from a template, Giraffe copies the whole template project into it. That includes usages, blocks, analytics, property definitions, flows, layers, apps, layouts, and project defaults such as units. Use a template to give every new project the same starting point.
A content pack adds content to a project you already have. You add a pack from the Content Library at any time. Its layers, usages, blocks, flows, analytics, apps, and layouts merge into the open project, and your existing content stays. Use a pack for a set of tools you only need on some projects, or to bring new content into a project that is already underway.
A content pack can't carry project defaults, such as units. If every project should start with a setting, put it in a template.
Neither one stays linked to the projects that used it. Changes you make to a template or a pack later only reach new projects, or projects you add the pack to again.
How a content pack is stored
A content pack is saved as a single JSON file in your workspace. The file lists everything you chose to include when you published the pack: geometries, usages, flows, blocks, analytics, property definitions, layers, Report Builder templates, apps, and layouts.
Images and 3D models stay outside the JSON file. The pack stores a reference to each file's URL, the same way a geometry does. This keeps a pack small, however many models it uses.
When you add a content pack to a project, Giraffe reads the JSON file and copies its contents into the project. Images and 3D models come across as references to the same files. A project that uses a pack's model shows the file's current content.
Republishing a content pack saves a new JSON file in place of the old one. Projects that already added the pack keep the content they copied in. Add the pack again to bring in the new version.
Work with content packs
Add a pack's content to your project with Add Content to a Project. On Team and Enterprise plans, you can also Create a Content Pack, Edit a Content Pack, Share a Content Pack, and Delete a Content Pack.
Workspace admins can also manage every content pack shared into the workspace from Home.