Key concepts & glossary

Last updated: June 30, 2026

New to Motif? This article explains the core ideas behind how Motif works, then defines the terms you'll see throughout the app and the rest of the help center. Read the big picture first to get the mental model, then use the glossary as a reference whenever a term is unfamiliar.

The big picture

Everything in Motif happens on a Board — an infinite canvas that holds your 2D drawings, 3D models, images, and notes together in one place. Your whole team can work on a Board at the same time, from any browser, with nothing to install.

You bring content onto a Board in two main ways:

  • Stream or Publish live models from Revit and Rhino through the Motif plugin. Streamed models stay linked to their source, so when the design changes, Motif updates. Published models are a one-time transfer of the model to Motif, and updates will need to be republished.

  • Publish sheets from Revit through the Motif plugin. Sheets also stay linked to Revit, so you can update a whole set, or publish a new set.

  • Upload files such as images, PDFs, and GLBs directly from your machine.

Once content is on the Board, you can navigate it, mark it up, leave comments, measure it, generate AI visualizations, and assemble Frames to present — all in the same workspace.

Glossary

Workspace & navigation

  • Board — Your workspace in Motif: an infinite canvas that holds all your content in one place. Teams work on a Board together in real time.

  • Canvas — The infinite space inside a Board where you place and arrange content. It supports both 2D and 3D, so a sheet and a live model can sit side by side.

  • Scene Browser — A panel that lists everything on your Board in a hierarchy, so you can find, select, and organize items.

  • View — A saved camera position. Views let you return to a specific vantage point for navigation or to generate a render from a consistent angle. They stay live — the content updates as the underlying design changes.

  • Frame — A presentation region on the canvas, similar to a slide. Frames let you assemble and present work.

  • Sketch plane — A flat plane in 3D space that you draw on, so sketches and markups sit correctly in three dimensions instead of floating.

  • Clipping plane — A plane that cuts away part of a model so you can see inside it or focus on a cross-section.

Content & assets

  • Asset — Any piece of content on your Board: an image, a 3D model, a PDF, a sheet, and so on.

  • Asset Library — Where your uploaded and published assets are stored and managed, so you can find and reuse them.

  • Model (3D asset) — 3D geometry on your Board.

Sheets & drawings

  • Sheet — A single drawing — a plan, elevation, section, or detail — published from Revit.

  • Sheet set — A group of sheets published together, such as a full plan set. A set keeps its sheets together while letting you work with any one of them individually.

  • Viewport — A region on a sheet that shows a drawing at a specific scale. A single sheet can hold several viewports at different scales, which is why a measurement reflects the viewport you're measuring in.

Markup & collaboration

  • Markup — An annotation you add on top of content — sketches, lines, arrows, rectangles, and text. A markup added to a sheet stays attached to it and moves with it.

  • Comment — Feedback tied to a specific location or asset. Comments on streamed models and published sheets sync back to Revit and Rhino.

AI visualization

  • Prompt box — Where you type a prompt to generate or edit an AI image or video.

  • Visualization style — A preset look applied to an AI render to set its overall aesthetic.

  • Scene Modifier — A control for adjusting the conditions of an AI render, such as time of day, weather, or setting.

  • Upscaling — Increasing the resolution of a rendered image for higher-quality output.

Integrations & account

  • Plugin — The Motif connector you install in Revit or Rhino to stream models and publish sheets and views.

  • Credits — The units consumed when you generate AI images and videos.

Where to go next

Need help? Reach out to us at community.motif.io