TL;DR: Decode Factorio's binary blueprint-storage.dat into a blueprint-book (in JSON format) for improved version control and other processing.

Players of Factorio can create "blueprints" which make it easier to store plans of sections of their factory for later reuse. These blueprints are stored either in the game's save file or in a separate file blueprint-storage.dat. The latter contains the player's "personal" blueprints which are available in every game.

This project decodes blueprint-storage.dat and creates a JSON file which -- after some packing -- can be read back into Factorio via "Import String".

The JSON file can be stored in version-control providing some insight what was changed. The binary format can be stored but provides no insight.

The JSON format is also open for more manipulation like merging two files or giving another player a set of blueprints.

Further This project can also be a helpful base for decoding the level.dat parts of a save file.

Usually only stable versions of the game are supported. Currently these are:

• 1.0.0: All vanilla stuff should work.

• 1.1.19: This is the first stable version in 1.1. All vanilla stuff should work.

• 1.1.51: The file format did not change much up to this version. 1.1.51 added one byte to all entities but this has been fixed now.

• 1.1.62: The file format changed by adding a flag to containers.

So all vanilla stuff should work but mods can turn up yet unknown fields. Please file issues for that.

Basic Unix/Linux commandline knowledge is assumed :-)

The script requires Python 3.6 (or higher) installed.

A short tour through the workflow:

• decode converts a *.dat file into plain JSON:

   ./decode tests/v1.0.0/bps-pipes.dat > /tmp/bps-pipes.json
  

• encode-export-string converts JSON into a packed import/export string:

   ./encode-export-string < /tmp/bps-pipes.json > /tmp/bps-pipes.export
  

• That import/export string can be read back into Factorio using the command "import string". The easiest way is to write the string into the clipboard and paste it into the dialog:

   xclip -i -selection clipboard < /tmp/bps-pipes.export
  

decode can skip unparsable blueprints with the -s (or --skip-bad) option. Together with the additional output of the -v (or --verbose) or -d (--debug) options this help to weed out bad blueprints.