Coming from another tool

There is no connector to another app. Moving to Soleil Clusters means downloading your files and dragging them in, which is usually one drag: drop the folder, or the zip a cloud drive gives you, and its folders become nested clusters. What differs by tool is what you lose and what you gain — this page maps the concepts across from the six tools people most often arrive from.

Updated October 21, 2026

There is no connector to another app. That is less of a problem than it sounds — dropping a folder or a zip takes about as long as a connector would, and its folders become nested clusters with their files in each one's Files. The steps for the usual places are below.

What is worth knowing is how the concepts map.

What transfers

Concept mapping

By tool

PureRef — the closest match for pure reference work. You gain collaboration, sharing and cloud storage; the tradeoff is that Clusters is a browser app rather than a native always-on-top window.

Eagle — a different job, so it is usually not a move at all. Eagle stays the private library on your disk; bring the references one project needs onto a cluster, where the team builds the board together. Eagle keeps every original as a real file, so they drag in like any other files.

Google Drive — keep it for backup and sync. Download the folder a project needs (Drive hands you a zip) and drop the zip on a canvas as it is: it becomes a cluster with its folders nested inside, every file under its own name.

Milanote — very similar shape. Boards become clusters, nesting maps directly, and the card model is comparable.

Miro — the whiteboard-to-canvas mapping is direct. Clusters is built around media and reference rather than diagramming and facilitation.

Storyflow — boards map to clusters and the references come across as files. What does not come across is the AI drafting: Clusters does not generate boards, and connects to your own assistant instead.

Boords, Storyboarder and the other storyboard tools — panels become grid cells, and the script side becomes a screenplay document on the same board.

StudioBinder — production management. Clusters covers the visual and document side; it is not a call-sheet-and-crew-management system. The storyboard software roundup compares the two directly.

Bringing files from Google Drive, Dropbox and other apps

Clusters has no connector to these services: you download your files from them, then drop what you downloaded on a cluster. In the app, the sidebar's Upload menu → Bring files from another app… shows these steps, with a place to drop and pickers, and brings what you give it into the cluster that is open, or one you pick.

Google Drive. For a whole Drive, open Google Takeout, choose Deselect all and select Drive, then Next step; keep .zip, set the size to 50 GB, and choose Create export. Google emails a link when it is ready, which can take days for a big Drive, and the link lasts a week. Download every part, then drop all the parts at once: they become one tree. For a few folders, right-click one in Drive and choose Download — Drive hands you a zip (a big folder comes as several) that comes in the same way.

Google Photos. The same Takeout steps with Google Photos selected. Each album and each year becomes a cluster, so a photo in an album can come in twice. The .json files Google puts beside each photo are left out.

Dropbox. On dropbox.com, select the folders you want and choose Download: Dropbox makes one zip of them, as long as it is under 250 GB and fewer than 10,000 files. For more than that, make the folder available offline in the Dropbox app on your computer and drag the folder in.

OneDrive. On onedrive.com, select the folders and choose Download for one zip, up to 250 GB and 10,000 files. For more, set the folder to Always keep on this device in the OneDrive app and drag the folder in.

iCloud Drive. On a Mac, iCloud Drive is already a folder: in Finder, Control-click the folder, choose Download Now, wait for it to finish, and drag it in. On an iPhone or iPad, touch and hold the folder in the Files app, tap Compress, and choose the zip.

Anything else — Box, Notion, an old hard drive, a camera card: if it downloads as a zip, or sits in a folder on your computer, it comes in the same way. What fits on your plan comes in at once, and the rest waits for room — see Importing folders and zips for the limits.

Comparisons and alternatives

Roundups of what else is out there, with pricing checked at the date shown:

• The best PureRef alternatives
• The best Milanote alternatives
• The best mood board apps
• The best storyboard software

Practical route in

1. Pick one live project rather than migrating an archive.
2. Drop its reference folder, or the zip you downloaded, onto a canvas — it becomes a cluster, with a nested one for each folder inside it.
3. Give things names — names are what search works on.
4. Nest sub-clusters where the old tool had folders.
5. Invite the team. Up to 10 people edit free on Free and Creator, so there is no seat maths; a bigger team moves to Team.

Archives are usually not worth moving. Leave them where they are and start with work that is live.

Moving out again

Worth knowing before you commit: board exports as PNG and PDF, document exports as PDF, Markdown, HTML, .fdx and Fountain, every original file downloadable as uploaded, and the REST API can read everything programmatically.

Machine-readable: /docs/migrating.md · /llms.txt
What changed and when: /changelog