A parking structure, a mixed-use podium, or a subdivision layout usually follows a repeatable pattern instead of being drawn fresh every time. Flows turn simple shapes into more complex geometry with built-in algorithms, so draw directly with a flow already in your project.
Giraffe's default templates come with pre-built flows tailored for mixed use, residential, and industrial workflows.
Draw with a flow in your project
Click the Flows button in the drawing toolbar.
Click a flow's name. Your project's flows are listed alphabetically, and the icon next to each name shows the shape that flow starts drawing with.
Choose a shape in the shape picker. It offers only the shapes allowed in the flow's properties: Rectangle, Polygon, Line, or Point.
Click on the map to draw the shape.
Choose which flows appear in the Flows menu
The Flows menu (the Flows button in the drawing toolbar) lists the flows saved in your current project. To control which flows appear, add or remove flows in the project. Any flow you add or delete in the Flow Manager shows up in the list, or disappears from it, right away.
To start every new project with the same set of flows, set them up in a project and save it as a template. Projects you create from that template come with those flows in the Flows menu.
Learn how to save a project as a template.
Adjust a flow
Select a shape you drew with a flow. Its input parameters appear in a Flow section of the properties palette. Edit them right there.
To edit the flow's underlying logic instead, click the pencil icon in that section. This opens the flow in the Flow Manager.
No flows in your project yet?
The Flows button shows Open flow editor instead. Click it to open the Flow Manager, where you can build a flow from scratch.
You can also check the Marketplace for an existing flow: open the Content Library (from the main menu, or the + on any panel tab), click the Marketplace tab, then choose Flows.