What files can I upload to AI Project Builder?

Two different lists are at work here, and it is worth being clear about which is which.

**Source files** are what you upload into the importer. They are temporary and private, and the list of formats we can read from them is deliberately wide.

**Project files** are what stays attached to your finished project and can be downloaded by anyone who can see it. That list is narrower, and it is unchanged by this feature.

A Word document is a good example: it is genuinely useful source material, so the importer reads it — but Provenfolio does not host .docx as a downloadable project attachment, so it cannot be kept with the finished project. The review screen tells you which of your files are in that position, by name.

Read in full, as source material

• CAD: STEP, STP, IGES, IGS — header metadata, originating CAD system, units, part names, assembly structure and component counts.
• 3D meshes: STL, OBJ, 3MF — triangle counts, bounding box, object counts.
• Documents: PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD, RTF — the text, page and word counts, and the title.
• Spreadsheets and data: XLSX, XLSM, CSV, TSV — sheet names, used ranges, row counts, column headers, a few sample rows, and units detected in the headers.
• Images: JPG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, BMP, HEIC — dimensions and EXIF capture date. A small number are described by an image model. HEIC means photographs straight off an iPhone are read like any other, including the date they were taken.
• Drawings: DXF — the declared units and CAD release, the sheet extents, the layer names, the text in the title block and notes, and how many dimensions the drawing carries along with the value each one recorded. This is often the most useful file in a folder: a material, a finish and a general tolerance are written on the drawing and modelled nowhere.
• Native CAD from SolidWorks, Inventor and Solid Edge: SLDPRT, SLDASM, SLDDRW, IPT, IAM, IDW, PAR, PSM, ASM — the property block inside the file. The title, who last saved it, the revision, and the custom properties your company template asked you to fill in, such as material and part number. The preview image stored in the file is read too, and may be described by an image model. **The model itself is not opened** — see below.
• Archives: ZIP is opened and its contents examined as though you had uploaded them directly.

Recognised and indexed, but not opened

Recognised by name, folder and size. The contents were not opened. The name, the folder it sits in and its size are still evidence — a folder called "simulations" full of solver files says something true about the project even though nothing inside them was read.

• Native CAD with no readable container: CATPart, CATProduct, PRT, F3D, FCStd, 3DM, X_T, SAT, SKP and similar. Nothing inside these is read.
• Drawings: DWG. DXF is read; DWG is not, and the two are easy to confuse.
• Legacy Office formats: DOC, XLS, PPT.
• Solver and simulation output: CDB, RST, ODB, INP, MSH, DAT.
• Archives we do not expand: RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ. These are kept whole and can still be attached to the project.
• Any file too large to open. It keeps whatever its header told us and stays selectable as a project file.
• Image formats we do not decode: TIF, TIFF, SVG.

Why we ask for a STEP export

There is no open specification for a SolidWorks or Inventor part, so while we can read the properties you typed into one, we cannot read its geometry. That means no component count, no assembly structure and no units — most of the vocabulary a mechanical case study is built from.

A STEP export fixes it, and takes about thirty seconds. Provenfolio names the menu path for your package after the scan, and you can add the exported files to the same import without starting again or spending another build. Your answers and everything already read are kept.

If native CAD is the only CAD in the folder, we will ask you to add a STEP export before spending a build — because the draft would otherwise have no geometry to describe at all. You can always choose to go ahead without one.

Skipped

System or temporary files. Nothing was deleted and nothing was published.

• Operating-system files: .DS_Store, Thumbs.db, desktop.ini, and the contents of __MACOSX.
• Temporary and lock files: .tmp, .bak, .swp, .crdownload, and Office lock files beginning ~$.
• Version-control and tooling folders: .git, .svn, node_modules.

Needs attention

Could not be read. Review these before relying on the draft. This covers empty files, corrupt or truncated exports, password-protected archive entries and formats we do not recognise at all. Every one of them is listed by name with the reason — nothing is quietly dropped.

What can become a permanent project file

Exactly the formats the ordinary project uploader accepts, and nothing more. See "Supported file formats" for that list. Your plan's per-project file and 3D-model limits apply to your selection in the usual way, and the review screen shows the count against your allowance before you commit.