Manage Design Options with Drawing Layers

Comparing the areas, shadowing and footprint of different scenarios is a key part of design.

Giraffe supports design options with drawing layers and layer groups.

Create a new Drawing layer using the New Drawing Layer button in the Layer palette

To add a geometry to a layer, select the geometry, then select the layer from the dropdown in the left hand Properties palette

Geometries on different drawing layers do not stack, keeping the scenarios from interacting spatially.

If your scenarios are simple, it may be okay to have each scenario on a single Drawing Layer. If there is more complexity, you can create Layer Groups to keep all of the relevant layers together.

To group layers, drag one layer directly on top of another layer.

You will be prompted to enter a name for the group.

You can use views to control layer visibility! Create a new view for each scenario.

While you work,. you can quickly open scenarios by clicking that scenario's view in the View menu.

There are two ways to compare your calculated yields for scenarios: using Urban or Analytics.

Changing the visibility of drawing layers helps you quickly understand building metrics in the Urban Tab.

Giraffe Urban Calculations shows the areas for all layers that are on. To show areas for different options, turn the layers you don't want to consider to fully invisible. (You'll see a closed eye icon).

You can compare metrics for your scenarios side-by-side using Analytics.

Group your analytics report by Layer (if each scenario is on a single layer) or by Layer group. The result splits your analytics calculations into columns - 1 column per scenario.