Direct uploads

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When to use file uploads

Upload files directly when you:

• Need to convert IFC data to Speckle format
• Don’t have the source application or license
• Want to view a model quickly in your browser
• Receive files from collaborators who don’t use Speckle connectors
• Work with file formats that don’t have a dedicated Speckle connector

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Uploads and connectors produce different datasets

These differences affect analysis. Intelligence dashboards, Data Validation, Power BI and any querying you build on model data all read the published objects and their properties. If some models in a project arrive by upload and others by connector, counts, groupings, and validation results can differ for the same source file. Choose one route per project and stay with it, and be explicit about which route produced any figures you report. The two routes serve different purposes. Uploads read a file, so they cover formats and situations where no connector exists or the authoring application is not available. Connectors run inside the authoring application, so they can carry data that lives in the session rather than the file — selection and view filters, coordinate settings, and application-specific properties. See the format details below for what each upload path carries.

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Upload a file

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Supported file formats

The format rules apply to drag-and-drop uploads in the web app and to uploads through the API. Existing models stay readable; the rules affect importing new files and uploading new versions. Availability depends on the conversion services enabled for your workspace. Cloud syncs (ACC, ProjectWise, Trimble Connect, and SharePoint) accept the same formats as uploads, except Tekla Structures: cloud syncs accept neither .tekla nor .db1 files. A synced QGIS project fails to convert, because a sync cannot add its project folder zip: sync the project’s data files instead. A synced .rvm publishes without its attribute export and P&IDs. Trimble Connect syncs additionally accept the formats Trimble Connect converts to TrimBIM; see Sync models from Trimble Connect.

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Unit conversion

Speckle detects and preserves the source units for these formats:

• IFC ✔︎
• 3dm ✔︎
• DGN ✔︎
• SKP ✔︎
• STP ✔︎
• FBX ✔︎

Other formats have a different behaviour:

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File format details

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IFC

IFC files are converted to Speckle format with support for attributes, property sets, and quantities. Supported data:

• Element and element type attributes
• Property sets
• Element quantities
• IFCSpaces are published as volumetric geometry

Known limitations:

• IFC2x2_FINAL and Release Candidate versions aren’t supported
• Alternative formats such as XML, ZIP, and databases aren’t supported
• 2D types like IfcAnnotation aren’t currently supported

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Rhino (3DM)

Rhino files maintain geometry and layer structure when uploaded. Known limitations:

• Rhino 9 files aren’t supported
• Dynamic text isn’t supported

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SketchUp (SKP)

SketchUp models are converted with geometry and basic organization preserved. Known limitations:

• Attributes aren’t imported
• Dynamic components may not transfer correctly

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DWG

Upload AutoCAD drawing files directly. DXF files are accepted only in compatibility mode. Known limitations:

• Large files may take longer to process
• Dynamic text isn’t supported

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Wavefront (OBJ)

OBJ files are converted with geometry preserved. Known limitations:

• Materials aren’t supported

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Tekla Structures

Speckle converts Tekla Structures model packages (.tekla) and model databases (.db1) on deployments where Tekla uploads are enabled. This is not enabled by default; confirm availability with Speckle before relying on it for your workflow. Upload the complete model folder to preserve profiles, shapes, and materials.

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Vectorworks (VWX)

If your design lives in Vectorworks, upload the .vwx file to publish it without opening Vectorworks or installing its connector. The Vectorworks connector publishes the objects you select; an upload publishes the 3D content of every design layer. Speckle reads files last saved in Vectorworks 2021 through 2027. Files from other releases are not supported yet. What is published:

• 3D objects on every design layer, including design layers hidden in the document, grouped by story, layer, and type.
• Each object’s name, type, object properties, and IFC properties. An object whose 3D geometry Speckle cannot read arrives with its properties and no geometry.

These parts of the document are not published:

• Objects in a class that is hidden in the document.
• Sheet layers.
• 2D-only objects, such as callouts, data tags, and section lines.

If a Vectorworks upload fails:

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Solibri (SMC)

Upload a Solibri .smc file to publish the whole federation saved in it, without opening Solibri or installing a connector. You do not need the original IFC files alongside it. After conversion, open the model in Speckle to view its geometry and inspect its properties. Files saved in Solibri 9.12 and 26.6 have been verified. Speckle attempts to read .smc files from other releases, but their compatibility has not been verified. .smv and .smct files are not supported. What is published:

• The saved federation, grouped by source model and its spatial hierarchy.
• Component geometry with original colours and transparency.
• Source properties, Solibri-derived properties, and saved classification results, including group, zone and system memberships.

These parts of the document are not published:

• Rule sets and checking results.
• Presentations.
• Issues and BCF data.

An upload reads the data saved in the file; it does not run Solibri checks or re-evaluate classifications. For the closest match to Solibri’s 3D view, save the file with Save 3D Representations with Model enabled under Settings > 3D in Solibri, and let the 3D view finish drawing before saving. When the file has no saved 3D representation for a component, Speckle tries to rebuild its geometry. This takes longer and can produce approximate geometry. Components that cannot be rebuilt keep their properties but have no geometry. A component’s Federated Floor property is included only if Solibri computed and saved it. To populate it, open the file in Solibri, group the model tree by Locations, and use Save As before uploading again. If a Solibri upload fails, check that the file opens in Solibri and save it again before retrying. Contact Speckle support if it still fails.

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TrimBIM (TRB)

TrimBIM (.trb) is Trimble’s model format. Trimble Connect converts every model it stores into TrimBIM for its 3D viewer, and Tekla Structures, Trimble Business Center and Trimble Connect for Windows export it. Upload a .trb file to publish the model without the application that made it. Speckle reads TrimBIM version 8, the version Trimble Connect writes. Files in another TrimBIM version are not supported yet. What is published:

• Every element with its geometry, name, type and property sets, grouped by site, building and storey, or by the groups saved in the file.
• Materials and colours. Textures are not published.
• Openings under the element they cut, and doors and windows linked to the wall that hosts them.
• Elements whose geometry Speckle cannot read, such as alignments, grid lines, labels and bolts, arrive with their properties and no geometry.

Lengths, areas, volumes and masses are published in millimetres, square metres, cubic metres and kilograms, the units a TrimBIM file stores. If a TrimBIM upload fails:

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Upload an ETABS model

Upload an ETABS .edb file to publish the model without opening ETABS or installing its connector. Add the result files ETABS saves beside it to publish the analysis results too. For the steps, see Upload a file. An upload publishes the whole model, with the same objects and properties as the ETABS connector.

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Files that convert

Speckle reads files saved in ETABS 18 through 23.0. Files from other releases are not supported yet. Analysis results from ETABS 18 files are not supported. These limits apply to an ETABS upload:

• Each file, including the .edb, can be up to 128 MiB.
• The .edb and its result files together can be up to 640 MiB.
• An upload can include up to 100 result files.

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Add the analysis results

The .edb holds the model, not its analysis results. ETABS saves the results beside it in result files with the same name as the model: a .msh file and .Y files, such as .Y, .Y00, .Y01, .Y$$, .Y_ or .Y_1. Upper and lower case in file names do not matter. To upload a model with its results, do one of the following:

• Drop the model folder, or select the .edb together with its result files. The upload starts immediately.
• Drop the .edb on its own. In Add the analysis results, drop the model folder or the result files, or use Choose folder or Choose files. Then select Upload with results.

A folder that holds the .edb but no result files also opens Add the analysis results. To publish the model without results, select Upload model only. Result files must be in the same folder as the .edb. Speckle leaves out files in subfolders and files that do not match the model, and does not upload them.

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What is published

• Joints, frames, tendons, shells and links, with their geometry, grouped by level.
• Each object’s type and properties, such as its section, material, length or area.
• Section and material definitions.
• Analysis results, when you upload the result files. An upload publishes them the same way as the ETABS connector.

An upload reads the data saved in the files. It does not open ETABS, rerun the analysis or recalculate the design.

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If an ETABS upload fails

If the upload fails after it starts, check that the file opens in ETABS before retrying. Contact Speckle support if it still fails.

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Upload an AVEVA Review model

Upload an AVEVA Review .rvm file to publish a plant model from AVEVA E3D or PDMS without installing a connector. Add the attribute export and the DEXPI P&IDs to publish the model’s properties and its pipeline systems too. For the steps, see Upload a file.

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Files that convert

Speckle reads binary RVM files. ASCII RVM files are not supported. The attribute export is the CADC_Attributes_File text file AVEVA writes beside the RVM, usually with the same stem as the RVM file: HO-PIPE.rvm and HO-PIPE.txt.

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Add the attribute export and P&IDs

Drop the .rvm on its own, or together with its attribute export and P&IDs. Speckle then asks for the companion files in two dialogs. Files you dropped together with the .rvm are already added. The upload starts, and the model appears in your project once it converts. Speckle checks each file before the upload. A check never blocks the upload: a file with a warning is still uploaded. When you add an attribute export, Add P&IDs lists the drawings it cites, marked Included or Missing. Use the list to find missing P&IDs. A drawing number can contain *, which file names cannot, so its file usually has _ in that place: drawing P-100-* is in P-100-_.xml.

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What is published

• Every element of the model tree, such as sites, zones, equipment and pipes, grouped as in the model, with its geometry, colour and transparency.
• Lengths are in millimetres.
• With the attribute export: each element’s name and type, and its attributes in an Attributes property group. Elements the export lists without geometry, such as nozzles outside the exported level range, arrive as objects with properties only.
• With P&IDs: each pipeline on the P&IDs becomes a system holding its pipe and the components on it. Matched objects get a P&ID property group with the tag, drawing number, line number, fluid code, nominal diameter and piping class, and are connected in the flow direction the P&ID draws.

P&ID items are matched to model objects by tag. Items whose tags are not in the model, such as fittings and off-page connectors, are not published as objects.

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If an AVEVA Review upload fails

If the upload fails, check that the file is a binary RVM export and that it opens in AVEVA Review or Navisworks before retrying. Contact Speckle support if it still fails. If the model publishes without attributes or P&ID links, check that the attribute export starts with CADC_Attributes_File and that the P&IDs are DEXPI exports, then upload again.

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Upload GIS data

Upload GIS data to publish map layers in Speckle, without opening a GIS application. Speckle reads these formats: For the steps, see Upload a file. A QGIS project needs one more step; see Upload a QGIS project.

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Name zipped shapefiles and geodatabases

A shapefile is several files and a file geodatabase is a folder, so upload each as a zip. The name tells Speckle what the zip holds:

• Zip the shapefile’s files, such as .shp, .shx, .dbf, .prj and .cpg, and name the zip <name>.shp.zip. A zip can hold several shapefiles.
• Zip the .gdb folder and name the zip <name>.gdb.zip.

Speckle does not accept a zip with any other name. The model is named without the double suffix: parcels.shp.zip publishes the model parcels.

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Upload a QGIS project

A QGIS project holds the layers, groups and styling of a map, but not the data they show. Upload it together with a zip of its project folder: the folder that holds the project and every file its layers use, subfolders included. QGIS projects cannot be synced from cloud storage; see Supported file formats. If the zip does not contain the project, its badge shows Project missing and Continue stays unavailable. Zip the folder that holds the project, not only its data. The model shows the map as it looks in QGIS:

• Layers keep their legend names, groups and order. The project CRS is the model’s coordinate system.
• Single-symbol, categorized and graduated styles keep their colours. A rule-based style colours the whole layer with its first symbol.
• Layers unchecked in the legend are not published. Layer filters apply.
• Polygon layers with a 3D renderer are extruded as in the QGIS 3D view.

Only file-based vector layers are published. Raster, mesh and point cloud layers, database and web service layers such as PostGIS, WFS and XYZ tiles, and delimited text and memory layers are not imported. Labels, symbol sizes, line widths, layer opacity and joins are not published.

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What is published

• Each layer as a collection, and each feature as an object with its fields as properties.
• Points, lines and polygons, including 3D multipatch geometry. Curves are approximated with straight segments.
• A colour for each layer. KML features keep the colour of their style.
• Building footprints with height fields, such as a building height, a roof height and ground elevation, or a storey count, are extruded to their height. Footprints without a usable height stay flat.
• When a GeoPackage holds the same buildings in several levels of detail, such as lod12_3d and lod22_3d layers, only the highest 3D level of detail is published, with every layer that is not a level of detail, such as footprints.

Speckle moves the data close to the model origin and stores its coordinate system and location on the model. Data in latitude and longitude is projected to a local metric system. Projected data keeps its units, except US survey feet, which are converted to metres. These parts of the data are not published:

• KMZ files and KML network links.
• 3D models in KML placemarks. The placemarks arrive with their properties and no geometry.
• Raster data.

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If a GIS upload fails

If the upload fails after it starts, check that the file opens in QGIS before retrying. Contact Speckle support if it still fails.

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Move a workflow off a format the default path does not accept

If your workspace is in compatibility mode, you can keep uploading the formats only it accepts until it ends on 1 November 2026. Before then, export to a supported format or publish through a supported desktop connector. Check the resulting model before switching your workflow: uploads and connector publishing can produce different geometry and properties. See Uploads and connectors produce different datasets. For programmatic uploads, see Uploading IFC and other files.

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FAQ