Satisfactory Blueprint Designer 1.2: Sizes, Saving, Curves

Quick answer: You unlock the Blueprint Designer at Tier 4 (Mk.1, 32×32×32 m buildable volume), with Mk.2 at Tier 6 (40 m) and Mk.3 at Tier 9 (48 m). Build inside the frame, then click Apply Changes and the separate Save Blueprint button — skipping the second one is the most common way to lose your work. Blueprints save to a per-session folder on disk, which is also how you share one with another player.

• free costs nothing
• cheap small cost
• setup needs preparation
• grind pays off slowly
• skip the thing to stop doing

Blueprint Designer sizes at a glance

The buildable volume is what you actually get to fill; the building footprint (what the Designer itself occupies in the world, including its frame) is always 8 m larger on each side. Only buildings fully inside the inner boundary frame save into the blueprint — anything clipping the edge is left out.

Unlocking the Blueprint Designer and picking a size

Once unlocked, you'll find the Blueprint Designer in the special section of the build menu. It's a physical structure you build in the world — a platform with an open frame above it — and anything you place inside that frame becomes part of the blueprint. In-game menus sometimes shorten "Mk.2"/"Mk.3" to "Mk2"/"Mk3" — both refer to the same two upgrade tiers in the table above.

Treat each saved blueprint as a modular building block: design a piece once, and every later copy is a stamp of that same modular design, which is the entire point of using blueprints instead of hand-building every factory line from scratch.

1. Unlock Tier 4's FICSIT Blueprints milestone freeThis is the earliest point a Blueprint Designer Mk.1 becomes available, giving you a 32×32×32 m build volume. 1:03
2. Build the Designer structure itself setupIt's placed like any other building from the Special category, and everything you build inside its frame afterward becomes part of the saved blueprint. 1:45

Designing, naming and actually saving a blueprint

Once you've built something inside the frame — even something as small as a single wall light — walk over to the Designer machine to configure it. You can set a name, an optional description, an icon, and a color (a simple convention: blue for permanent designs, red for temporary test pieces, so you can tell them apart at a glance later).

The single most common mistake here: after configuring the name/description/icon, you have to click Apply Changes, then exit the menu with X — but that only saves the blueprint's metadata, not the blueprint itself. To actually write the blueprint to disk you must press the separate Save Blueprint button before leaving the Designer, or your work is lost.

1. Fill in name, description and icon freeColor-code by permanence (e.g. blue for keepers, red for tests) so your blueprint list stays readable once it grows. 2:49
2. Click Apply Changes, then Save Blueprint freeApply Changes alone does not persist the blueprint — Save Blueprint is the step that actually writes it, and it's easy to skip by accident. 3:52

Blueprint not saving? Fixes

Three things cause a blueprint to look saved but not actually persist:

1. You clicked Apply Changes but never clicked Save Blueprint freeApply Changes only commits the name/description/icon/color metadata. The separate Save Blueprint button is what writes the actual layout to disk — press it before leaving the Designer.
2. A building clips the boundary frame setupAnything not fully inside the inner boundary is silently excluded from the save rather than causing an error — if a piece is missing after placing the blueprint elsewhere, check it wasn't clipping the frame edge.
3. You're on a cloud session (e.g. GeForce NOW) grindBlueprints are stored per game-session folder on local disk, which does not persist across cloud-gaming sessions — save important blueprints to a session you actually own the storage for.

Where blueprints are stored on PC

Blueprint files (.sbp) live in a per-session folder rather than one global library — useful to know both for backing them up and for sharing with someone else:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\FactoryGame\Saved\SaveGames\blueprints\{SESSION NAME}
• Linux (Steam/Proton): ~/.steam/root/steamapps/compatdata/526870/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Local/FactoryGame/Saved/SaveGames/blueprints/{SESSION NAME}
• Steam Deck: the same Proton path under /home/deck/.steam/... — hidden by default, so enable "show hidden files" in the file explorer first.

To share a blueprint with another player, copy its .sbp file from your session folder into their session folder for the save they want to use it in, then reload that save — the game only picks up new blueprint files on load. Blueprints aren't global across your own save sessions either, specifically so starting a new game doesn't hand you every blueprint you've ever made; move files manually between sessions the same way if you want to reuse one.

Organizing dozens of blueprints before it gets out of hand

The blueprint you just saved gets filed into a directory — either an "Undefined" catch-all or a category you create. It's worth creating categories from the start: one save file can easily accumulate over a hundred blueprints (the video's presenter mentions having 120+ in a previous save with no organization), and sorting that after the fact is far more tedious than tagging as you go.

Good starter categories to create: foundations, factory lines, railways/highways, and load balancers — then split each into subcategories as it grows.

You can also hover any blueprint (or color swatch) and press a number key to bind it straight to your hotbar, then hold E to cycle other items in the same category — handy for switching between a handful of blueprints you're placing repeatedly without reopening the menu each time.

1. Create categories before you need them cheapAdd Category, then Add Subcategory, and drag blueprints into place — each move needs Apply Changes to actually stick. 6:20

Placing blueprints: build modes and the belt/pipe limitation

Building the contents of a blueprint from ground level is awkward — the recommendation is to use a Watchtower for a top-down view, or the Hover Pack with power placed at each corner, so you can see the whole footprint while you work.

When placing a saved blueprint in the world you get two build modes: Blueprint mode, which snaps to the edges of other blueprints and foundations for tight, aligned placement, and default mode, which gives full freedom to nudge it anywhere (hold H to toggle nudge, then use the mouse to fine-tune, holding Control for finer 50 cm increments instead of a full meter).

Conveyor belts, pipes and rails do not connect automatically across a blueprint boundary. You cannot place a belt against the edge of one blueprint and expect it to auto-connect to the next — every cross-blueprint connection has to be built and connected manually.

1. Use a Watchtower or Hover Pack while building inside the Designer freeGround-level building inside the frame makes it hard to judge alignment; a top-down view fixes that. 8:26
2. Delete one blueprint instance at a time with the dismantle gun freeHold Alt in the dismantle/build gun and target the blueprint to remove a single placed instance without touching its neighbors. 9:51

Building a curved blueprint for trains and highways

A gentle 5° curve (the video's presenter switched from 10° to 5° for a cleaner look) is the go-to for train tracks and highways, because it's shallow enough to snap together smoothly over a long run. Build it on a rotated foundation corner, using 1-meter walls along the inner and outer edges as a barrier — one side left as bare metal, the other painted, purely for visual contrast.

Curved blueprints are directional: a right curve and a left curve are two separate saved blueprints, because their vertices don't mirror correctly if you just try to flip one.

Chaining two curved blueprints edge-to-edge naively creates a visible straight seam between them, because each piece includes a straight foundation segment at its edge. The fix: go back into the Blueprint Designer, cut the leading foundation off the curve, and save that trimmed version separately as a "continued curve" piece — placing that between curve segments removes the seam.

To line pieces up cleanly, either rebuild using the exact same foundation depth as your first piece (e.g. consistently 4 m foundations), or nudge the new piece onto the existing foundation and let it seat naturally.

1. Save separate left and right curve blueprints setupA single curve blueprint only works in one direction — you need both to build a loop or a two-way road. 13:25
2. Save a trimmed "continued curve" piece setupCut the leading foundation off a curve piece and save it separately to chain multiple curves without a straight seam breaking the flow. 15:16
3. Layer a second curve on the inside for parallel tracks cheapFor a two-track or divided-highway curve, place a second copy of the same curve blueprint directly on the inside edge of the first. 16:22

FAQ

What tier unlocks the Blueprint Designer in Satisfactory? Tier 4 (FICSIT Blueprints) unlocks Mk.1. Mk.2 needs Tier 6 and Mk.3 needs Tier 9.

How big can a Satisfactory blueprint be? Up to 48 × 48 × 48 m with a Mk.3 Designer (6×6×6 foundations) — see the sizes table above for Mk.1 and Mk.2.

How big is the Blueprint Designer? The Designer building itself is bigger than its buildable volume: 40×40 m for Mk.1, 48×48 m for Mk.2, and 56×56 m for Mk.3, each about 8-16 m taller than its inner volume to house the frame.

Can you share blueprints? Yes, but not in-game — copy the .sbp file from your session's blueprint folder (see "Where blueprints are stored on PC" above) into the other player's session folder for the save they want it in, then reload that save.

Why won't my conveyor belt connect between two blueprints? Belts, pipes and rails never auto-connect across a blueprint boundary, even when two blueprints are placed edge-to-edge. Every cross-blueprint connection has to be built manually.

How do I save a blueprint without losing my work? Click Apply Changes for the name/description/icon, then click the separate Save Blueprint button before leaving the Designer — Apply Changes alone does not write the blueprint to disk.

How do you build a smooth curve for train tracks with blueprints? Build a shallow curve (5° works well) on a rotated foundation, save left and right versions separately since curves are directional, and save a trimmed "continued curve" piece without the leading foundation to chain multiple curves without a visible seam.

Sources

Unlock tiers (Mk.1 at Tier 4, Mk.2 at Tier 6, Mk.3 at Tier 9), the buildable volumes (32/40/48 m cubes) and the foundation/footprint figures are all confirmed against the current Satisfactory Wiki's Blueprint Designer and Blueprint pages, including the exact Windows and Linux blueprint save-folder paths. The wiki's dimensions supersede anything implied on-screen in the source video, since the video (Update 1.0, 2024-09-29) covers Mk.1 in detail but doesn't show Mk.2/Mk.3 construction directly. Every workflow step — naming, the Apply Changes vs. Save Blueprint distinction, category/subcategory organization, blueprint build mode snapping, the belt/pipe/rail non-connection limitation, and the curved-blueprint technique — comes directly from frames pulled from the source video and its transcript.

Read next

• Factory Master Planning: Designing a Satisfactory Base That Scales
• Satisfactory Phase 5 Endgame Guide: Compact Blueprints
• Satisfactory Building Tips: Curves, Snapping and Aesthetics
• Satisfactory Modular Frames Production Guide — what unlocks the Blueprint Designer