The top bar runs across the top of the Giraffe window. It holds the commands you reach for during a feasibility study: opening and saving a project, undoing a mistake, switching the map between 2D and 3D, and sharing your work with the rest of the team. It stays in the same place no matter which panels you have open, so you always know where to find it.
The workspace menu
The workspace menu is the icon on the far left of the top bar: your workspace's logo, or the Giraffe icon if your workspace hasn't set one. Click it to reach Home and your account controls. Everything except Theme only appears while you're signed in.
Home: opens your workspace's home page.
Manage Workspace: Members, Teams, Workspace Settings, and Workspace Properties each open their admin page. Subscription opens your plan's billing portal in a new tab.
Theme: pick one of five color themes: Minimalist, Minimalist Dark, Dark, Light, or Dark Blue.
Switch Workspace: jump to a different workspace you belong to.
Log Out: sign out of Giraffe.
The menu bar
Next to the workspace menu sit five menus: Project, Edit, Map, Apps, and Help. Each one opens a dropdown of commands for that part of Giraffe. Inside a space, the Project menu is labeled Space instead.
A command grays out when it doesn't apply right now, for example when nothing is selected, the project is read-only, or you're inside a space. Hover over a grayed-out command to see why.
The Project menu
The Project menu holds the commands for managing your project as a whole: creating, opening, saving, sharing, importing and exporting data, and deleting it. Inside a space, this menu is labeled Space, and commands that only apply to a project, like Import and Export, are hidden.
New: New Project starts a blank project. New Space starts a blank space, available on Enterprise workspaces to workspace editors.
Open: browse and open a saved project.
Open Recent: your most recently opened projects.
Save as: save a copy of the current project under a new name.
Share: invite people to view or edit the project.
Import: Import from project copies content from another project. Upload Content brings in files like CAD drawings or data layers. Hidden inside a space.
Export: CSV, CSV by level, GeoJSON (GIS format), Projected GeoJSON (in meters), STL, OBJ, and GLTF/GLB (3D mesh formats), DXF (CAD line format), Image/PDF, To Content Library, and Copy origin coordinates. Hidden inside a space.
Project Settings (Space Settings inside a space): adjust project units, info, and more.
Use as template: save the project as a starting point your team can reuse. Available on Team and Enterprise workspaces.
Advanced: JSON editor, Toggle fullscreen (
Ctrl+\on both Mac and PC, fills the window with the panel showing the Map), Reset usage data, Feature Table, and Custom Properties are available on Team and Enterprise workspaces. Remove SSO providers and logout appears for any signed-in account.Delete Project (Delete Space inside a space): only a project admin can do this.
🚨 Warning: Delete Project permanently removes the project. This cannot be undone.
The Edit menu
The Edit menu holds undo, redo, and the clipboard commands for whatever you have selected on the map. None of these commands are available inside a space.
Undo:
Cmd/Ctrl+ZRedo:
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+ZCut:
Cmd/Ctrl+XCopy:
Cmd/Ctrl+CPaste:
Cmd/Ctrl+VPaste to center:
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+V. Pastes into the center of your current view instead of in its original place.Duplicate selection:
Cmd/Ctrl+JDelete:
DeleteSelect All:
Cmd/Ctrl+AAll Commands:
Cmd/Ctrl+K. Opens the command palette, where you can search for any action in Giraffe by name instead of hunting through menus.Preferences…: drawing behavior (Classic draw mode, Stay in tool after drawing, Hover to insert midpoints), Draw bar position, panel tab style, colors, bounding box, layer manager, and shortcuts.
The Map menu
The Map menu controls the map's camera, grid, snapping, and appearance.
Toggle 2D/3D:
T. Switches between a flat plan view and a 3D perspective. The menu label always shows the view you'll switch to next.Zoom to Center and Zoom to Bounds: recenter the camera, or fit your whole project in view.
Search the map: find an address or place and jump the camera to it.
Show Grid:
G. Shows or hides the drawing grid. Not available inside a space.Edit Grid: change the grid's origin and rotation.
Snaps: turn snapping on or off with Always on, and choose what to snap to: points, midpoints, edges, intersections, locked geometries, and the map, plus raw and evaluated geometry, and Smart Snap.
Map Style: choose the basemap.
Render Style: switch between Flat, Simple, and Silhouette rendering, and force thin lines with Force 2D Hairline and Force 3D Hairline. Hidden inside a space.
Clip Below Base Plane: hide everything below ground level. Hidden inside a space.
Toggle Label Visibility: show or hide map labels.
Auto Orbit: slowly rotates the 3D camera. Useful when presenting.
Show Draw Bar and Show Context Bar: show or hide the floating draw bar and context bar over the map.
The Apps menu
The Apps menu opens any app in a panel, so you can pull up the tool you need without rearranging your layout first. Click an app's name to open it. A check mark shows next to apps that are already open.
In this project: apps you've added to this project, listed first. This group only appears once you've added one.
Giraffe's built-in apps, grouped by category: Map, Design, Analysis, and Data.
Add App: opens the App Library to find more apps.
Apps gray out when your layout's panels are locked.
The Help menu
The Help menu is where to go when you're stuck.
Chat with us: opens live chat with Giraffe support.
Keyboard Shortcuts: opens the full list of keyboard shortcuts for your current context.
About, Knowledge Base, Changelog, SDK Docs, Privacy Policy, and EULA: each opens in a new tab.
Build information at the bottom shows the current build's timestamp, useful if support asks which version you're running.
The breadcrumb trail
The center of the top bar shows a breadcrumb trail: Home, your favorite space if you've set one, and the project or space you have open. Click Home to return to your workspace's home page. Click the project or space name to search for and switch to a different one. Your favorite space only appears in the trail while you're inside a project, and only after you've set one.
Layout tabs
On the right side of the top bar sit your layout tabs: colored pills, one for each saved arrangement of panels in this project or space. Click a tab to switch to that layout. Switching layouts never changes your project data, only which panels are open and how they're arranged.
Click + to add a new layout: New from current layout copies your current arrangement. Giraffe Presets lists Giraffe's built-in layouts, and My Layouts lists layouts you've saved or that someone shared with you. From Template… and From Project… copy a layout from a project template or another project. Reset to defaults replaces all your layouts with the default starting set.
Right-click a tab for more options: Rename, Color, Duplicate, Save to My Layouts, and Delete. Revert to its preset's name only appears once you've changed a layout from the preset it started from. Delete is disabled while you only have one layout left.
See What is a layout? for how layouts are scoped, saved, and shared.
Sharing and presence
The far right of the top bar shows who else is working with you, and lets you invite more people in.
Colored avatars show teammates who are currently viewing or editing this project with you, with live cursors on the map.
The Share button opens sharing settings for the project. It only appears for a project, not a space, and only for project admins and workspace admins.
See Sharing in Giraffe for how to invite people and what each permission level lets them do.