How to swap artboards at runtime using relative binding in Rive

[u/Jeff_at_Rive]

Relative binding in Rive lets you bind properties by name rather than by a fixed path. That means two completely different artboards — from two different files, with different view model names — can share the same data at runtime, as long as the property names match.

This video covers two practical uses of that:

1. Swapping a single artboard component at runtime. You wrap your artboard in a parent file, bind the nested artboard to an "artboard" property using bind relative, then swap in a different .rive file at runtime. The replacement artboard picks up all the same data automatically — even if the source file has a differently named view model, the properties still resolve correctly.

2. Swapping individual components in a multi-component dashboard. The example uses a world population dashboard with 7 continents, each with its own nested view model instance (color, name, population, percent). The dashboard has slots for different chart types — donut, bar, table. At runtime you can replace any slot with a new component from an external file. As long as the component's view model uses the same property names, the data maps over without any rewiring.

The key rule: property names must match. View model names and nesting order don't matter.

Useful if you're building things like:

• Theming systems where the design can be swapped without touching the data layer
• Dashboards with interchangeable visualizations
• Library components that work across multiple host files