.vp Files vs. Cloud Sync

VisionPlan gives you two different ways to make a project survive past the current browser tab — cloud sync and .vp file export — plus a third output, PDF, that looks similar but solves a completely different problem. Each one exists because the others don't cover its job. This reference covers what each one is, when to use it, and how they fit together.

For the mechanics of the export flow itself, see How to Export a .vp File. For the import side, see How to Import a .vp File. For the autosave + cloud sync layer, see Save your work.

The three layers at a glance

Mechanism	What it is	Editable?	Triggered by	Tied to an account?
Autosave + cloud sync	Your projects, continuously backed up to the portal	Yes	Automatic, in the background	Yes — your VisionPlan login
.vp file export	A portable snapshot of one project as a file	Yes	One tap, on demand	No — file lives on disk
PDF (Save as PDF)	A rendered, view-only copy of a printed sheet	No	Print dialog, on demand	No — file lives on disk

The cloud-sync layer is the one you use without thinking about it — it just happens. The other two are deliberate actions you take when you need a copy you can move, hand off, or archive.

What cloud sync covers

When you're signed in, every autosave also pushes your project to your account on the portal in the background. When you open the same project on another device — phone, laptop, second browser — the latest version pulls down automatically. Conflicts resolve as last-write-wins based on the modification timestamp, so whichever device most recently edited the project is what every device sees next.

Use cloud sync as your default. It costs nothing in attention, it survives most browser-storage incidents (cleared cookies, switched browsers, new machine), and it works across devices on the same account. For day-to-day work — open the editor, draw, close the tab, come back tomorrow — you don't need to touch the export tools at all.

Cloud sync does not, however, cover:

• Handing the project to someone else — they'd need access to your account, which isn't how the app is meant to be used.
• Working offline indefinitely — sync requires the portal to be reachable. Local edits are safe (the editor stays usable), but multi-device pickup needs the network back.
• A point-in-time backup you control — sync keeps the latest version, not snapshots of intermediate states. If you make a destructive change today, cloud sync follows you into the destructive state.
• Surviving an account deletion or a sign-out on a device whose local storage later gets wiped — your work lives on the portal under your login. If the login goes away, so does the cloud copy.

That's where .vp files come in.

What .vp files cover

A .vp file is a single, portable, editable snapshot of one project. It sits on disk like any other file — your Downloads folder, a USB drive, an email attachment, a cloud-drive sync folder you control.

Use a .vp file when:

• You want to hand the editable plan to someone else. A subcontractor doing a specialty room, a designer revising the layout, a homeowner who wants to keep their own copy. Export the file, send it through whatever channel you'd send any other file, and they import it into their VisionPlan.
• You want a point-in-time backup you control. Export at a milestone — "framing done", "client approved layout", "before the kitchen redesign" — and stash the file. If the project drifts somewhere unwanted later, you can re-import the milestone copy as a separate project alongside the live one.
• You're moving across accounts. If you've started a project under one VisionPlan account and want to continue under another, export from the first and import into the second.
• You don't trust the chain. Browser storage, account sync, the portal — they're all robust, but they're not under your direct control. A .vp file sitting in a folder you manage is your own backstop.

.vp files round-trip cleanly. Import a file, edit the project, export again — the result is a fresh .vp snapshot of where you've moved the work to. Multi-user collaboration through .vp files works the way old-school file-based workflows work: someone is always the canonical editor at any given moment, and you exchange files explicitly to hand off the canonical role.

What PDF covers (and doesn't)

PDF is rendered output. It's the printed version of your plan — the sheet a printer or a client sees, including title block, scale bar, schedules, watermarks, paper size, and orientation. See How to Print a Plan for the full Print dialog.

Use a PDF when:

• You're sending the plan to a client for review, not for re-editing.
• You're submitting for a permit or attaching to a quote.
• You're printing on paper.
• The recipient doesn't have VisionPlan and doesn't need it — they just need to see the drawing.

A PDF is not a substitute for a .vp file. Saving a plan as PDF does not give you an editable backup. Opening the PDF in another VisionPlan install does nothing — the app can't read PDFs as project files. If you only ever save PDFs and lose your account, the editable project is gone even if every PDF you ever produced is intact.

This is the most common confusion in practice. PDF is for viewers; .vp is for editors; cloud sync is your automatic safety net. Use all three for what they're good at.

Decision flow

When you're about to save / share / back up a project, walk down this list:

1. Will I (or someone with my login) want to keep editing this on a different device? → Cloud sync already handles this. Nothing to do.
2. Will someone else need to edit the layout? → Export a .vp file and send it to them. They import it into their VisionPlan.
3. Will someone else just need to view or print the layout? → Save as PDF from the Print dialog.
4. Do I want a point-in-time snapshot I control? → Export a .vp file and stash it. Cloud sync won't preserve intermediate states; the file will.
5. Am I worried about an account-level failure or moving between accounts? → Export a .vp file as a backstop.

Interactions worth knowing

A few cases where the layers interact in non-obvious ways:

• Importing a .vp file creates a new project record. It doesn't merge into or replace an existing project, even one with the same name. The new project also gets a fresh ID, so cloud sync treats it as a separate entity from any same-named project on another device. If you import the same .vp file twice on two devices sharing an account, both imports become independent projects on your account — sync doesn't deduplicate by source-file identity.
• Exporting doesn't change cloud sync. The file you download is a snapshot; the project keeps syncing as normal. Re-exporting later gives you a newer snapshot.
• .vp files are mode-agnostic. A file exported from Contractor mode opens fine in Customer mode and vice versa — the file describes the project, not the operator's mode preference.
• Cloud sync is silent on failure. If sync can't reach the portal, your local copy keeps working but the cloud copy stops updating until the connection is back. This is by design — a flaky network shouldn't surface as a save error. If you're working under a known-unreliable connection and you care about a specific milestone, export a .vp file as an explicit backstop.
• Exporting offline gives you exactly what's local. The export reads from local storage — whatever your editor is currently showing is what lands in the .vp file. There's no remote round-trip on export, so you can export safely from a plane / job site / basement with no signal.

Summary

• Cloud sync is your default. It runs automatically when you're signed in. Don't think about it.
• .vp files are for handoff, point-in-time backups, cross-account moves, and offline-controlled redundancy.
• PDFs are for viewing and printing. They're not editable and don't replace .vp files.
• Use the three together; none of them is a full substitute for either of the other two.

Related

• How to Export a .vp File
• How to Import a .vp File
• Save your work — autosave and manual save
• How to Print a Plan