File types & the .dsum project file

Partly availableSome of what this page describes is in DimSum today and some is still coming. Parts marked Coming are designed but not built yet.

DimSum keeps each job in one self-contained `.dsum` file that saves itself continuously, and keeps tools, building templates, settings and report layouts in their own shareable files (`.tsum`, `.bsum`, `.ssum`, `.rsum`).

Overview

DimSum uses these file types. Each has one job:

Extension	What it is	Typical name	Where it lives by default
.dsum	A project. One single, self-contained file: all project data, levels, pages (and every page version), instances, shapes, parts, attachments and media, As-Bid Snapshots, the embedded plan files, the tool/settings/list snapshots it uses, and its version history.	Smith Residence.dsum	Jobs folder
.tsum	Tool library — on screen, a folder. Tools, Tool Packs, Assemblies, Materials, Dynamic Lists, Stamps, Line and Dimension Styles.	My Tools.tsum, Framing.tsum, LowVoltage.tsum	The Tools folder (Documents\DimSum Tools); a .tsum of tables and lists goes in the Materials folder (Documents\DimSum Materials)
.bsum	Building (Project) Template library. One or more Building Templates such as "2 Story w/ Basement".	Residential.bsum	App Data (or the Tools folder)
.ssum	Settings export. User and company info, defaults, shortcuts. Used to move your setup to a new machine.	My-Settings.ssum	Wherever you export it
.rsum	A report layout. One report per file: a small text file — JSON, marked "format": "dimsum-report" and "version": 1 — saying what the report shows and how its pages look. DimSum writes it safely (a temporary file, then swapped in); a file from a newer version of DimSum is refused with a plain message on the Reports tab. It holds no job data; the Reports tab runs it against the open job. Not a container like the files above (no encryption, no SQLite). Share a report by sending its file (The Reports tab). the Report Designer saves it as you work, and a logo or picture (png, jpg or svg, up to 2 MB) is kept inside it, written in as text, so a report still travels as one file. It stays "version": 1, and's files open unchanged. it also says which rows a report reads — the List (parts, items, or items with their parts), its filter, its group levels and their order, its sort, its Combine rule and whether turned-off parts print — plus each column's total, the Detail band's style and any totals tables (The Report Designer — data). Still "version": 1: these are additions, and reports print exactly as before. An older DimSum refuses a report that lists items or has an Average, Smallest or Largest total, and ignores a filter with a warning.	Count Sheet.rsum	The Reports folder (Documents\DimSum Reports), listed under Custom on the Reports tab; DimSum Defaults' Test Report comes with DimSum, and the Material List and the Takeoff Summary
3D view file (.vsum proposed)	A customer-safe 3D model. Geometry, colors, names and chosen quantities only: no formulas, prices or tools. Opens in the free DimSum 3D Viewer desktop app (an online viewer hosted by Planbase comes later).	Smith Residence.vsum	Wherever you export it

A .tsum in the Tools folder is a folder. DimSum reads every .tsum at the top level of the Tools folder (System Settings → Tools) and shows each one as a Custom folder, named by its file, in the Tool Designer and in a job's Tools panel — My Tools.tsum is the folder My Tools. DimSum Defaults is built into DimSum, read-only, and is not a file you manage. So sharing a folder is sending its file, and taking one in is putting the file in your Tools folder — File → Tool Folders → Add a .tsum to the tools folder…, or by hand — where it appears by itself. A .tsum copied in Explorer from one already there shows greyed, as a copy of another folder. Nothing about what a .tsum holds changes (Tool folders and files).

One file type, two places. A .tsum in the Tools folder is a tool folder — tabs, folders, tools and saved parts, shown in the Tools tree and a job's Tools panel. A .tsum in the Materials folder (Documents\DimSum Materials, System Settings → Tools → Materials folder) is a material folder — tables and lists, shown in the Material Library. DimSum Defaults shows in both. It is still one file type — — and a tool folder and a material folder may share a name.

The big idea: a .dsum opens on any DimSum install, on Windows, macOS or Linux, even if that machine has none of your tool libraries. Everything the project needs is inside it.

And a job stores nothing it does not need — Place a material out of a library and the job is given the numbers, frozen, plus three names: the library's, the list's, and the row's key. No table travels, so nothing in a job can move by itself, and a job opened with every library gone reads exactly the numbers it read the day it was drawn. The names are there for one purpose: when that library is open, the update screen can find the row again and offer the newer numbers (Materials Library).

The .dsum is for DimSum users (you, your coworkers, another office). Customers never get it; they get reports, marked-up plans and the 3D view file. There is no free .dsum viewer, by design: customers never see the "backend" (formulas, pricing, tools).

Where to find it

Task	Where
Create / open projects	File menu on the Project Canvas; New Project Process (New Project Process)
Save	Nothing to do: every action saves itself. There's no Save button.
Make a small copy to send or archive	File → Export for Sharing
Restore an earlier version	File → Version History
Export a 3D model for a customer	File → Export 3D Model (3D viewport)
Make a tool folder, or take one in	File → Tool Folders → New folder… / Show the tools folder / Add a .tsum to the tools folder…, or right-click Custom in the Tool Designer (Tool folders and files). There is no Open or Save As Show the materials folder and Add a .tsum to the materials folder… join them — on the Material Library's right-click Custom too, beside New folder…, which makes a material folder
Add / remove tool folders	The Tools folder is the list — add a .tsum to it; right-click a folder → Delete… sends its file to the Recycle Bin. System Settings → Tools names what it did not show
Storage folders, cache, history retention, Exports location	Settings → Storage & Files (Settings page)
Export / import settings (.ssum)	Settings page

How to use it

Work without ever saving

1. Draw, edit, rename, move: each action is written to the project file the moment you finish it.
2. Close DimSum (or the project) whenever you like. Nothing is ever "unsaved", and there's no "Save changes?" prompt.

Share a project with a coworker

1. Choose File → Export for Sharing.
2. DimSum writes the smallest possible copy of the project: the rolling save history is dropped, unused tool snapshots are removed and plan images are compressed. Your original file isn't touched. Everything else is kept — every page version, every As-Bid Snapshot, and the attachments all travel with the file. It's worth the extra size: the person opening it sees exactly what you saw.
3. Email the copy, put it on a USB stick, or drop it on a shared drive.
4. Your coworker opens it in their DimSum. Plans, takeoffs, parts and assemblies all come with it. They do not need your .tsum files.

Use the same command to make a compact archive/backup copy of a finished job.

Open a project someone else has open

1. You open Smith Residence.dsum from a network drive while a coworker has it open.
2. Choose Open read-only to look, or cancel. Only one person can edit a project at a time in v1.

Open a file saved by a newer DimSum

If your DimSum is older than the one that last saved the file, the project opens read-only with a clear "Update DimSum to edit this file" prompt. Nothing is lost or downgraded.

Restore an earlier version of a project

1. Open the project.
2. Choose File → Version History.
3. Pick a version from the list. DimSum keeps the last 20 save points plus one per day, for 30 days (changeable in Settings → Storage & Files).
4. Restore it.

Version history is about save points. For "what did this bid look like on the 22nd", use an As-Bid Snapshot instead.

Freeze a bid with an As-Bid Snapshot

1. When you send a bid, click As-Bid Snapshot and name it (e.g. "Bid 1 – 9/22").
2. DimSum freezes the whole takeoff at that moment — quantities, prices and the report output — inside the .dsum.
3. After the plans change, open the snapshot list and compare: the differences between today's takeoff and "Bid 1" are listed, so you can see what the revision actually cost.
4. Snapshots are never deleted automatically and travel with the file, including Export for Sharing.

Undo a run of changes

1. Open the Undo History dropdown next to Undo.
2. Click the action you want to go back to; everything since is undone in one step (50+ steps at once).
3. It's one shared history for the whole project — canvas, Estimating tab and properties (Keyboard shortcuts).

Recover after a crash

1. Reopen DimSum and open the project.
2. DimSum replays the journal automatically. Every command up to the crash is restored.
3. Continue working. No action is needed.

Move your setup to a new computer

1. On the old machine, export your settings as a .ssum file.
2. Copy your .tsum and .bsum files (from App Data or your Tools folder) and your .dsum jobs.
3. On the new machine, install DimSum, then import the .ssum and add the libraries in Settings → Tools (or import them during First-Run Setup, step 6).

Change where files are stored

1. Open Settings → Storage & Files.
2. Change the App Data path, the Jobs folder or the Tools folder.

What are these other files?

Open a job and you'll see four files where you expected one.

File	What it is	How long it lives
Smith Residence.dsum	The job. Everything is in here.	Forever
Smith Residence.dsum-wal	SQLite's write-ahead log. New work is appended here first, then folded into the .dsum. This is the file that makes "no Save button" and crash recovery possible.	While the job is open
Smith Residence.dsum-shm	SQLite's shared-memory index into the -wal. Pure bookkeeping.	While the job is open
Smith Residence.dsum.lock	Ours. The single-writer lock, holding the machine and user name so a second person gets "In use by on OFFICE-PC."	While the job is open

So "one file" is a promise about a closed job. Close it properly and DimSum folds the log into the .dsum and deletes the other three, leaving one file you can email. While it's open, the three companions are how your work survives a power cut.

Don't delete a -wal file by hand. If DimSum crashed, that file is your unsaved work, and the next open replays it. Deleting it throws away everything since the last checkpoint.

One folder per job

A job is never loose among other jobs. Creating one makes a folder:

DimSum Jobs/
└── Smith Residence/           ← copy, move, back up or zip this
    ├── Smith Residence.dsum   ← the job
    └── Exports/               ← reports and PDFs land here

The Location you pick when creating a job is the parent of that folder, so choosing a folder never scatters files into it. Later, Attachments/ joins it for linked photos and documents.

The folder is always named after the job. Rename the job and the folder and the .dsum inside it are renamed with it — what you see in DimSum is what you see in Explorer, always.

A few things follow from that:

• The rename closes and reopens the job. Windows won't rename a folder while a file inside it is open, so DimSum checkpoints, closes, renames and reopens. It takes a moment. If any part fails, nothing is renamed and you're told — you never end up with a half-renamed job.
• Illegal characters are cleaned up. Smith – Lot 4/5 can't be a folder name as typed, so \ / : * ? " < > | become -. The dialog shows you the folder name you'll get before you commit.
• If you rename the folder yourself in Explorer, DimSum follows you. The Open Job list is built by scanning your Jobs folder, not just from a list of recent files, so a renamed or moved job still shows up — under its new name. Opening it offers to bring the job's own name back in line.

Options & settings

Storage locations (chosen in First-Run Setup, changeable in Settings → Storage & Files)

Location	Default	Contents
App Data folder	Windows %APPDATA%\DimSum; macOS ~/Library/Application Support/DimSum; Linux ~/.local/share/DimSum	Settings, the Master Tools, your tool and building-template library files (.tsum, .bsum), caches
Jobs folder (optional, separate)	~/Documents/DimSum Jobs	One folder per job, each holding its .dsum and its Exports/
Tools folder (optional, separate)	~/Documents/DimSum Tools	.tsum / .bsum files you want to keep, back up or share. every .tsum at its top level is a Custom folder in DimSum; a backup DimSum made there is not, and System Settings → Tools says so. these are tool folders only, and the one-time move's backup is in its Backups subfolder
Materials folder (optional, separate) —	~/Documents/DimSum Materials	.tsum files of tables and lists — each a material folder in the Material Library. Set in System Settings → Tools → Materials folder
Reports folder (optional, separate) —	~/Documents/DimSum Reports	.rsum report layouts — each one a report under Custom on the Reports tab. Set in System Settings → Tools → Reports folder, beside the Tools and Materials folders. DimSum makes it the first time it needs it
Cache folder	App Data /cache (size-limited; you can clear it)	Rendered tiles, 3D meshes. Regenerable and never stored in project files.
Exports folder	Exports/ next to the .dsum	Reports, PDFs, CSVs and marked-up plans you export (normal, readable files). The Reports tab's Export PDF and Export CSV start here. is dropped and XML is not planned

Related settings

Setting	Where	What it does	Default
Version-history retention	Settings → Storage & Files	How many rolling versions to keep, and for how long	Last 20 save points + 1 per day, kept 30 days
Cache size + Clear	Settings → Storage & Files	Limits and empties the tile/mesh cache	Size-limited
Default Exports location	Settings → Storage & Files	Where exported reports go	Exports/ next to the .dsum

There is no autosave setting: saving is always on and immediate. (The plan's First-Run step 5 still lists an "autosave interval"; that item is obsolete under always-saving.)

Examples

• Emailing a small job. A single-story house with a 12-page PDF produces a .dsum roughly the size of the PDF plus a little project data. Export for Sharing makes it even smaller for email.
• A 500 MB plan set. A multi-family or hotel set with hundreds of sheets makes a large .dsum. It still opens with the first page visible in under 2 seconds, because DimSum loads plan chunks lazily (Performance targets).
• Tools on a team. Your lead estimator maintains CompanyFraming.tsum and emails it out. Everyone imports it. Projects created before the update keep their original tool copies; each estimator can choose Update from Tool per project, preview the differences, and pull in the fixes.
• Low-voltage contractor. Keeps LowVoltage.tsum (device point tools, a Boxes list with SKUs) separate from any framing libraries, and loads only that library.
• Showing a customer the model. You export Smith Residence.vsum and send it. The customer sees the 3D framing with colors and names, but no prices or formulas.

Tips & shortcuts

• Keep the Jobs folder and Tools folder inside a folder you back up.
• Use Export for Sharing before emailing a job; it leaves your working file complete.
• Exported PDFs and CSVs are ordinary files in Exports/; send those to clients, not the .dsum.

Rules, limits & edge cases

• v1 is all local. No cloud storage, no live sharing. Sharing = sending the file.
• One person per file. A second opener gets read-only.
• No .dsum viewer for customers. Share reports, marked-up plans or the 3D view file instead. Files will be bound to accounts, so a .dsum copied to someone else's computer won't open unless it was shared with them. If your own account is closed, Download all my data unlocks your files so you can still view them, read-only (Account & License).
• Compact removes old save-point history from the working file; after compacting you can't restore the removed versions. Page versions and As-Bid Snapshots are not touched.
• A protected page's password is per project and can't be recovered if it's lost.
• The cache can be cleared at any time; nothing in it is irreplaceable.
• A .dsum can't be opened by other software, by design. Use report exports and Export Profiles to share data outside DimSum.
• Opening a project created with a newer tool version than your libraries is fine: the project carries its own snapshot.

Related features

• Architecture overview
• Performance targets
• Tool library files (.tsum / .bsum)
• Building Templates
• New Project Process
• Settings page
• Plan import & auto-conversion
• Page Versions
• Universal Search, Media, Attachments & Protected Pages
• Licensing, Workspaces, seats & trial