Alchemy Factory Blueprints: Keys, Folder & Workshop

The keys

From the official FAQ: “Press B to enter Blueprint mode, select a building and press F to confirm, then press H to package it. Packaged Blueprints can be used in the Blueprint interface opened by pressing Q.”

The selection itself is shift plus click-and-drag for an area. Once the XY plane is set and the mouse released, the Z axis extends upward only before you let go of shift (a December 2025 change). Blueprints can save catapult and cannon targets as long as the targets are inside the selection.

The same B selection has a second use: press T instead of F to cut the selection and move it. Everything cut goes into your inventory, so a large cut with a full inventory drops items on the floor and the paste fails. Empty into a box first.

Where blueprints are saved

Press Q, then Export: it opens the folder holding the blueprint files. To use a blueprint on another computer, copy the file into the same path there. Since the Workshop update of 13 January 2026 blueprints are saved as .png images (the picture is the blueprint) and older .af files remain compatible. Version 1.0 added folder navigation inside the Q menu.

Steam Workshop

Available since v0.4.2.3924. The official guide:

Upload. Q, select the blueprint, Edit to add a name and description (custom cover images are allowed), then “Upload to Steam Workshop”, accept the agreement, Confirm. A Workshop button then opens the item’s page.

Download. Subscribe on the Workshop page, then open Q; subscribed blueprints carry a Steam icon on the right of their selection box.

By August 2026 the Workshop held more than 3,500 blueprints. The developers moderate it under Steam’s conduct rules and remove uploads without notice.

Using blueprints well

• Drag a blueprint from the Q menu into the hotbar for one-key placement (January 2026).
• Blueprints placed without enough materials leave nothing behind since v0.4.2, which fixed a leftover lift mesh.
• A blueprint copies containers but not their contents.
• Sandbox Mode (February 2026) unlocks everything and builds for free, with Input/Output Portals and a Flask for testing lines, which is where most guide authors design and test before pasting into a real save.
• After a recipe rebalance (April and June 2026, and the 1.0 obsidian change) a cauldron blueprint can produce something else. Test in sandbox before pasting into production; that is the standing advice of the cauldron guides.

Blueprint files and third parties

Players have written external planners around the file format, and one Steam thread asked whether the blueprint code had been parsed for scripting layouts. The developers have not published a format specification. Blueprints downloaded outside Steam are plain files you copy into the export folder; there is no in-game import button for arbitrary URLs.

Sources: Alchemy Factory FAQ (13 December 2025), question 4; “Alchemy Factory Steam Workshop is Available Now!” (13 January 2026) including the v0.4.2.3924 log; Update v0.4.1.3754 (20 December 2025); Sandbox Mode announcement (4 February 2026); 1.0 Patch Notes; Timm Plays Games, 50 tips (5 January 2026, transcript).