Blueprint books vs blueprints

Factorio gives you two related sharing units: a blueprint (one layout) and a blueprint book (a folder of blueprints and nested books). Choosing the right unit makes your designs easier to maintain—and easier for others to import from Beltworks.

Blueprint: one placeable layout

A blueprint stores entities, tiles, circuits, and optional grid snaps for a single design: a smelting column, a rail curve, a solar tile, a mall wing. Paste once, get one footprint.

Use a solo blueprint when the design stands alone, will be versioned independently, or is small enough that nesting adds no value.

Blueprint book: a portable library

A book is a container. It can hold blueprints and other books, with an active index for which page is selected. One string moves the entire tree—ideal for megabase kits, starter packs, city-block catalogs, and “everything for this science pack” bundles.

When books win

Modular systems with many variants (belt tiers, wagon counts, station flavors).

Teaching packs: lesson 1–N as separate blueprints in one book.

Planet kits in Space Age: Vulcanus pads, Fulgora scrap lines, Gleba farms as chapters.

When books lose

You only meant to share one build; a book adds friction.

Consumers need a single child and keep re-importing a giant tree.

Versioning: a one-line fix in one child still republishes the whole book string.

Nesting and mental models

Think “folder tree,” not “zip of screenshots.” Nested books are chapters; leaves are placeable layouts. Keep naming strict (`Rail / Stacker / 2-lane`, not `final-final-v3`). Future you—and Beltworks search—will thank you.

How Beltworks shows books

On a book’s detail page, Beltworks renders the nested tree so you can inspect contents before importing. Copy still exports the full book string Factorio expects. Entity and recipe indexes roll up from children so search can find a book that contains foundries even if the book title is generic.

Planners are not layouts

Upgrade planners and deconstruction planners are tools, not factories. They appear in the archive with their own type labels. Do not expect them to place assemblers; they configure upgrade/deconstruction selections.

Sharing etiquette

Prefer a book when consumers need a set; prefer a blueprint when they need one footprint.

Document tile size, belt tier, and mods in the description.

On Beltworks, native uploads should say whether the string is a book or a single blueprint in plain language.