Bring models from multiple authoring tools into one Motif board

Last updated: August 5, 2026

Most projects don't live in one file. Motif lets you bring all of it onto a single board so the whole project can be reviewed, marked up, and rendered in one place — without exporting to a separate coordination tool. This article covers how to combine models from different authoring tools, how to position them relative to each other, and how to keep them organized once they're in.

Step 1: Bring in your first model

Start with whichever model is the anchor for the project — usually the Revit model, or whichever one is closest to being the "real" building.

From Revit or Rhino

You must be an Editor on the project to publish or stream to it.

  1. Install the Motif plugins from motif.io/plugins-installer before opening Revit or Rhino. The installer finds your installed versions automatically.

  2. Open your model.

    • Revit: go to the Motif tab and click Show Motif.

    • Rhino: run the MotifPlugin command.

  3. Click Sign in in the plugin panel and complete sign-in in your browser.

  4. Choose the Project and Board you want to send the model to.

  5. Define what gets published:

    • Revit: pick an existing 3D view, or choose Open Motif 3D View to set up exactly what you want to send.

    • Rhino: use Hide or toggle layer visibility to control what's included.

  6. Rename the asset from the three-dot menu next to the asset name if you want a clearer name. You can't rename it after publishing.

  7. Click Stream (live connection) or Publish (snapshot).

  8. Refresh your browser — the model appears on your board.

From a file (GLB or OBJ)

  • Drag the file from your computer straight onto the canvas, or

  • Open the left drawer → Assets tab → + Add asset, then follow the import prompts.

Either way, the model is added to the Asset Library and can be placed on any board in the project.

⚠Motif does not currently support .skp files

Step 2: Add the rest of your models

Repeat Step 1 for each additional model. A few things that make this smoother when you're doing it several times over:

  • Name assets as you publish them. With four or five models on one board, names like Tower_Revit_Structure and Facade_Rhino_OptionB save real time later. Remember that renaming isn't possible after publishing yet.

  • Publish straight to the Asset Library if you're not ready to lay everything out yet. Assets published or streamed from a plugin are always added to the library, so you can collect all your models first and place them deliberately afterward.

  • Assets are shared across the whole project, not just one board. Toggle between Board Assets and Project Assets in the Asset Library to see the difference. That means you can build a coordination board with everything on it and separate boards for individual reviews, all drawing on the same assets. You can learn more here 📄 Manage assets in the Asset Library

  • Place one at a time. The Asset Library doesn't support multi-select placement yet — drag assets onto the canvas one by one.

💡 Exports from SketchUp and similar tools: Set your units and origin before exporting to GLB or OBJ. A model exported far from its origin will land far from the center of your board, and you'll spend more time hunting for it than aligning it.

Step 3: Line up your models

Motif does not use a shared coordinate system across models from different sources. Models from Revit stream in from their Internal Origin to the Motif origin. Static imports land based on how they were exported. Models from different tools will not automatically land in the correct position relative to one another, and there is currently no way to snap two models to a shared point.

You can align them visually or with the X, Y, Z position in the properties panel.

  1. Place your anchor model first and leave it where it lands.

  2. Bring in the next model and move it into position against the anchor.

  3. Use a recognizable shared feature to judge alignment — a grid intersection, a building corner, a column line, a property boundary.

  4. Orbit and switch to a top-down view to check alignment in plan as well as in section. Something that looks aligned from one angle is often off in another.

Tips:

  • Set a common origin upstream. If you control the source files, exporting or modeling everything relative to the same project origin removes almost all of this work. Have Rhino and SketchUp files use the same origin point as the Revit Internal Origin.

  • Link into Revit first, then stream once. If your Revit project already references geometry from other applications — Rhino (.3dm), STEP, or OBJ files — that linked geometry publishes to Motif along with the Revit model, already coordinated in Revit's coordinate system. Linked Revit files stream too, so a linked-model setup can arrive as one correctly-positioned asset instead of several you align by hand.

  • Lock the anchor model in the Scene Browser while you nudge the others, so you don't move it by accident. (Locking lasts for your browser session only.)

Step 4: Organize the scene

Once you have several models on one board, the Scene Browser is how you keep it workable. It lists everything on the canvas and mirrors the structure of each source application:

  • Revit models follow Revit's structure: Category → Family → Type → Instance.

  • Rhino models follow the layer hierarchy: Layers → Objects.

  • Static GLB and OBJ models appear as a single item with no internal hierarchy.

What this gets you with a multi-model scene:

  • Hide and show whole models or parts of them. Click the eye icon to compare two façade options in the same location, or hide the Revit interior while reviewing the massing.

  • Lock the models you're not editing so markup and moves don't hit the wrong thing.

  • Find things fast. Search the Scene Browser by name, or filter by object type when the canvas is crowded.

  • Zoom to fit — right-click any item and choose Zoom to fit to jump the camera to it.

⚠ Hide and lock states last only for your browser session and are visible only to you, and for 3D models you can only lock the top-level asset, not individual categories or layers.

Step 5: Keep models up to date

  • Streamed models update from the source as changes are made, no need to republish the model if you are currently streaming it.

  • Published (static) models are snapshots. Publish again over the existing asset to refresh it.

  • Imported GLB and OBJ files are not linked to their source. Re-export and re-import to update, then re-align.

  • Revit work-shared models: sync with central before streaming, so what you send matches what your team sees.

Streamed and published assets keep whatever position you gave them on the board, so an update won't undo your alignment work.

Good to know

  • You don't need the authoring app open to view a model in Motif. You do need Revit or Rhino open to push changes or receive comments through the plugin.

  • Comments sync both ways on streamed and published Revit and Rhino assets. Comments placed in Motif appear in the plugin, and vice versa. If you've published multiple assets from one plugin, switch to the asset you want in the plugin before checking the Comments tab.

  • Performance: large multi-model scenes benefit from pointing your machine's dedicated graphics card at your browser. See 📄 How to configure graphics acceleration to improve performance.

  • A few things won't come across. From Revit: view cameras. From Rhino: 2D text, clipping planes, cameras, and non-solid hatch patterns (which render as solid).

  • Point clouds can't be streamed from Revit yet. Other capture data can come in as GLB.

FAQ

Can I combine models from Revit, Rhino, and SketchUp on one board? Yes. Revit and Rhino come in through the Motif plugins; SketchUp and other tools come in as GLB or OBJ exports. All of them can sit on the same board at the same time.

Will they line up automatically? No. There's no shared coordinate system across sources, so you position them visually. Setting a common origin in your source files before export is the best way to reduce that work.

How many models can one board hold? There's no set limit. Teams review developments split across eight or more source files on a single board.

Can I connect directly to models in Autodesk Construction Cloud? Not currently — Revit models must be streamed through the Motif plugin for Revit.

Do linked Revit files come through? Yes. If linked models are visible in your Revit model, they'll be visible in Motif.

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