Blocks let you reuse a building type or site element across a study without redrawing it. When a block won't place, update, or make unique, find the message you see below for the cause and the fix.

A block copy on the map uses its own layer and scenario. Every geometry inside it follows that copy. If you hide the layer a block copy is on, the whole block hides, including any blocks nested inside it. If a block copy is in a scenario, the whole block only shows in that scenario.

Inside the block definition, each geometry still remembers the layer and scenario it was on when you made the block. You only see those stored layers and scenarios when you edit the block.

When you edit a block, each geometry shows on the layer and scenario it was on when the block was made. If those layers are hidden, or those scenarios are turned off, the geometries disappear while you edit.

To see them, turn those layers on, or turn on the scenarios they belong to. To fix it for good, run Consolidate Blocks to active layer or Consolidate Blocks to active scenario from the command bar. Each one moves everything in the block onto your active layer or scenario.

Giraffe moves every geometry in the block, and in every block nested inside it, onto the active layer. Use this before you delete an old layer that block parts still use, or after you import a pack whose blocks use layers your project doesn't have.

A block shows in the scenario its copy belongs to. To move a block and everything in it into the scenario you're working in:

If no scenario is on when you run it, Giraffe removes the scenario from the block, so it shows in every scenario. Like the layer command, this changes every copy of the block.

Every copy of a block shares one definition. When you edit a block and save, every copy of it updates. Each copy keeps its own position, rotation, scale, mirror, base height, and stack order.

To change one copy on its own, make it unique first:

Giraffe copies the block definition under a new name and points the selected copies at it. To copy a block from the Block Manager instead, open the block's ••• menu and choose Duplicate Block.

While you edit a block, Giraffe pauses apps that calculate results for the whole project. You're changing the block definition that every copy of the block uses, so the project isn't finished until you save. Pausing keeps those apps from showing numbers based on a half-edited block.

These apps pause while you edit a block:

Click Save & Exit or Exit in the Editing block bar at the top left of the map. The apps recalculate with your saved block.

A block goes missing pieces when a block it holds gets deleted. The Block Manager shows a red Missing Child Blocks alert on that block. To fix it:

Giraffe removes the references to the missing blocks. Before you delete a block, check the delete prompt. It lists every other block that uses it.

"Invalid block: recursive reference" means a block holds a copy of itself, directly or inside another block. Edit the block and remove the copy of itself.

In the Block Manager, open a block's ••• menu and choose Edit Properties JSON… to edit its properties. If Giraffe shows "Invalid JSON," check for a missing comma, bracket, or quote, then save again.

A project holds up to 200 blocks. If Giraffe shows "Too many blocks in project," "Too much block data in project," or "Block JSON is too large," click Delete Unused Blocks in the Block Manager to free up space, or make a block smaller.

Select the block, open the command bar, and run Explode. The block becomes regular geometries on the block's layer and scenario. Blocks nested inside stay as blocks, so run Explode again for each level you want to break apart.

Set levels and stack order on the block copy, not on the geometries inside it. The copy's levels apply to everything in the block. The copy's stack order adds to the stack order of each geometry inside.

Giraffe shows these errors in toasts at the bottom of the screen when something with a block fails.

These toasts confirm that something worked, or ask you to fix a small thing before you continue.