Visual Space manual, Live Apps, Live Apps

Live Apps are focused creative workspaces that stay connected to the space area where the work belongs. You begin with familiar file browsing, then open a dedicated editor for drawing, video, spatial planning, 3D scenes, technical designs, or formulas. That shared shape makes it easier to move between ambitious tools without losing the surrounding Visual Space context.

Choose the Workspace That Fits the Work

The six Live Apps solve different creative problems. Choosing by outcome is usually easier than choosing by tool:

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Canvas is for layered raster artwork, image composition, painting, text, shapes, masks, and visual experiments. It suits pixel-oriented work where layers and selections matter.

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Frames is for assembling a video story on a timeline with clips, captions, audio, text, markers, and review notes. Its current editor is best treated as an early local editing workspace rather than a finished rendering pipeline.

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Layouts is for quick, measured 2D plans such as rooms, renovations, offices, and event arrangements. It combines walls, openings, labels, measurements, snapping, and a grid without the weight of professional building-design software.

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Poly is for approachable 3D scene building and visual arrangement. Use it to place and transform scene objects, organize a hierarchy, adjust basic materials, inspect different views, and exchange a limited set of 3D data.

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Blueprints is for controlled technical geometry. It brings units, dimensions, constraints, sketches, simple feature-based preview bodies, drawing output, and design diagnostics together in a CAD-lite workspace.

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MathPad is for visually authoring structured mathematics. It supports rendered formula editing, keyboard and palette input, formula structure inspection, and several portable text and accessibility formats.

The most important 3D choice is visual arrangement versus engineering intent. Poly works with scene objects, transforms, materials, cameras, and freeform visual review. Blueprints works with measurements, constraints, sketches, features, and technical validity. A shape that merely looks right may be enough in Poly; Blueprints is designed to preserve why the geometry has that shape.

Canvas and Layouts can both begin with an empty 2D surface, but their jobs are also distinct. Canvas is image- and layer-oriented. Layouts is measurement- and plan-oriented, with walls, rooms, openings, and a scaled grid.

Browse First, Then Enter the Editor

Opening a Live App from Apps keeps you in the current space-area context. The first surface is normally an explorer where you can browse relevant files, move through areas or folders, and start a new item when your access allows it. Editor-specific tools stay out of the way until you open a file.

The Apps launcher groups all six creative workspaces without leaving the current space context.

An opened item changes the emphasis. The canvas, viewport, stage, timeline, plan, or formula becomes the main workspace, while Visual Space places supporting controls around it. Across the family, the familiar pattern is:

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Primary creation and manipulation tools sit toward the left.

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Structural views such as layers, scenes, plans, or formula outlines remain close to the workspace they organize.

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Inspectors, history, assets, materials, exports, settings, comments, and similar supporting tools use the right side when the app provides them.

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Contextual actions appear near the current work without turning the editor into a wall of controls.

The exact controls differ because a video timeline and a CAD sketch demand different choices. The placement remains familiar enough that opening another Live App should not feel like entering an unrelated product.

On narrow screens, the same work adapts into compact controls, drawers, sheets, or scrollable tool strips. A phone can be useful for inspection and lighter changes, while precise painting, timeline editing, spatial drawing, and 3D manipulation remain more comfortable on a larger screen.

When an app has created a durable file identity, a direct editor link can return to that item instead of making you browse from the beginning. It never bypasses the space or area access that protects the file, and a session-local draft may not survive a later reload.

File Identity and Saved Work Are Different

A file can have a name, a place in an explorer, and a reusable link without every edit inside its editor being durably stored. File identity answers what you opened; persistence answers whether the work itself will return. This distinction is especially important in the current Live Apps release.

Canvas and Blueprints currently preserve editable document state:

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Canvas saves its layered project state and can reopen that project for further editing. Its current raster engine and export range remain limited, but the Canvas document itself is durable.

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Blueprints autosaves a recoverable editable design snapshot. Sketches and current CAD-lite design state can return after reopening, although this is saved-state collaboration rather than a complete professional version or merge system.

The other four apps still keep important editor changes in the current session:

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Frames persists the project identity, but timeline edits, assets, review markers, and related project content are not loaded from or saved as durable editing content. The Export area previews planned output choices; it does not currently render or download a finished video.

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Layouts persists its file identity, publication state, and editor access state, but walls, rooms, openings, labels, measurements, and other drawing content remain local to the open editor. Publishing the layout does not preserve the current drawing first. A local PNG can capture the visible plan, but that image is not a reopenable Layouts document.

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Poly currently creates local draft identities and keeps scene objects, transforms, materials, history, imports, and other scene changes in the current session. Its local export is a partial GLTF containing supported visible scene content; unsupported content can be skipped, and the export is not a complete saved Poly project.

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MathPad keeps the editable formula, selection, and undo history in the current session. Formula exports can copy portable representations, but reopening the file does not yet restore durably saved formula content.

If an app describes work as local or in-session, export anything currently useful before leaving or refreshing. Do not rely on the explorer row alone as proof that the editor content has been saved.

Work With the Right Access

Live App access has two layers. First, normal space and area permissions decide which files you can discover or open. Private-area work remains private even when someone shares its direct link.

Creation and editing can add another requirement. Some apps use standalone app access or an app pack, while some creation flows also require Coordinator access. This means you may be able to view an accessible shared file without being allowed to create a new one or change it. If a create or edit control is absent, or Visual Space shows an access prompt, changing the file link will not grant the missing permission.

The explorer remains useful in this situation: it separates permission to reach shared work from permission to start or modify premium work. Access to an app also never grants access to a private space area by itself.

Bring Creative Work Into an Activity Meeting

Canvas and Frames can join an activity meeting as shared Live Apps. Participants can choose an existing project or create supported work when their access allows it, then use the focused workspace on the meeting stage.

Meeting availability does not change the document's durability. Canvas continues to use its saved project state. Frames remains a session-oriented timeline editor even when it is opened on the meeting stage. Live Apps are currently available in activity meetings, not direct-message calls.

The other Creative Live Apps in this family do not currently provide the same meeting-stage path.

Formulas Inside Articles

Articles can display stored MathPad formula snapshots as inline or block content. The current visible Article toolbar creates a new linked block draft; it does not choose the formula already open in MathPad, capture that expression, or offer an inline-versus-block picker. Without a usable stored snapshot, readers see a linked-formula placeholder.

An existing snapshot can provide accessible reading and a way back to MathPad, but it is not a live mirror of the formula editor's current session. Later MathPad changes do not silently update it, so verify the article itself before publishing.

Current Boundaries Worth Knowing

The Live Apps family already provides substantial creative surfaces, but its apps are at different stages of completeness:

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Canvas is a durable layered project editor without a complete raw-pixel engine or standard raster export range.

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Frames offers a capable local timeline shell without durable edit payloads, real media processing, or finished video export.

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Layouts supports practical local plan drawing and PNG capture, while drawing persistence and safe publication of the current geometry are still missing.

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Poly provides early local 3D scene editing and partial GLTF exchange without durable scenes, shared editing, or meeting support.

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Blueprints preserves CAD-lite snapshots and supports SVG drawing output, but it does not yet provide a production geometry engine or manufacturing-grade exchange.

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MathPad provides rich visual formula editing and multiple formula exports, while durable formula storage and realtime collaboration remain open.

These boundaries are not all-or-nothing judgments. They help you choose whether an app is ready for a durable project, a current-session exploration, a review, or an exported artifact.

Common Questions

Which app should I use for 3D work?

Use Poly for visual scenes, object arrangement, materials, and freeform 3D ideas. Use Blueprints when dimensions, constraints, sketch intent, technical review, and controlled geometry are the reason for the work.

Does seeing a file in the explorer mean all of its edits are saved?

No. Canvas and Blueprints preserve editable document state. Frames, Layouts, Poly, and MathPad currently keep important edits in the active session, even when a file or draft identity exists.

Why can I open a shared file but not create or edit one?

Reading follows the file's space-area access. Creation and editing can additionally require Coordinator access, standalone app access, or an app pack. These are separate checks.

Can I share a direct editor link with anyone?

You can share the link, but only people with access to the owning space area can open the file. A direct link is a shortcut to the same protected item, not a public-sharing switch.

Which Live Apps work in meetings?

Canvas and Frames can open on activity meeting stages. The feature is not currently available in direct-message calls, and the other apps in this family do not yet use that meeting path.

Does publishing a Layout preserve my current plan?

Not currently. Publication preserves the Layouts identity and makes it read-only, but it does not save the local drawing first. Export a PNG if you need a visible record before leaving, and do not publish under the assumption that the geometry will be recoverable.

Does a MathPad formula in an article stay linked to my latest edits?

No. The article holds a stored, accessible snapshot and a path back to MathPad. It does not continuously follow the current in-session formula state.

Explore Each App

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Start with Canvas, Frames, Layouts, Poly, Blueprints, or MathPad for the app-specific workspace and current limits.

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Follow Find, Create, and Open Live App Files for the shared explorer-to-editor journey.