Whole project — everything, folder structure preserved.
Updated files only — the same tree with the empty placeholder folders left out.
A single folder — started from the folder itself in Files & Evidence.
All three are prepared in the background. Close the tab if you like; the package will be waiting on the Downloads page.
Choosing between them
| Whole project | Updated files only | Single folder | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What's in it | Every folder and every document. | Only folders that actually contain documents. | One folder and everything beneath it. |
| Empty folders | Kept — the structure is the point. | Left out. | Kept within the folder. |
| Where you start it | The project's Downloads page. | The folder's menu in Files & Evidence. | |
| Good for | Handover. The full record, in the agreed shape. | Sending someone what exists, without a skeleton of empty folders. | One discipline, one trade, one stage. |
| Speed | Slowest | Faster | Fastest |
Excluding rejected documents
The Whole project option has a tickbox for leaving out documents that were rejected in review. The folder structure is identical either way — only the rejected files are dropped — so a handover package keeps the shape everyone agreed on.
If you tick it and see “Every file in scope was left out by the rejected-documents filter”, then every document in the project is currently rejected. Untick the box, or fix the rejections first.
Why a big export takes a while
Preparing a package means fetching every document from storage one at a time, rebuilding the folder tree, compressing it, and uploading the result. The fetching is the slow part, and it scales with how many documents there are — not with how big the ZIP ends up.
A small project is ready in well under a minute. A large one with thousands of documents can take several minutes, and a very large one can run long enough to fail. If that happens:
On a project with a large checklist, most folders are placeholders waiting for documents. Dropping them can cut the work dramatically while leaving every actual file in place.
Take one stage or discipline at a time from Files & Evidence. More steps, but each one is small and finishes quickly — and you can run them while other work continues.
If you need the export organised differently — by stage, by discipline, or to a client's own layout — the Downloads dialog has a Custom Folder Structure option that emails us. We prepare it for you. This is also the right route for a package that keeps timing out.
Reading the Downloads page
Each request appears as a row with a live percentage while it builds. When it's ready you get a Download button, and the package stays available so you can come back to it.
Mark as failed appears on a row that is still building. Use it when a request has clearly stalled — it clears the row so you can start a fresh one, and it does not interrupt any other download.
“Copy link” shares the package with anyone who has the link. It copies a public address for the ZIP — no DocuBuild account, no project membership and no sign-in is needed to open it. That is exactly what makes it useful for sending a package to a certifier or a client who isn't on the project, and exactly why it should never go into a public channel, a shared inbox, or anywhere it might be forwarded on. The link keeps working after the download row is deleted.
What a downloaded package contains
- The latest version of each document. Superseded versions stay in DocuBuild, where their history is visible; they aren't included in the ZIP.
- The project's folder structure, as it appears in Files & Evidence.
- Documents only. Comments, decisions, approval history and the activity trail live in DocuBuild — for those, use the checklist export instead, which produces a spreadsheet rather than a ZIP.
Extracting the ZIP on Windows
If Windows stops with “Path too long” (error 0x80010135) while extracting, or the extracted folder turns out to be missing files, the package itself is fine. Windows has refused to create the files whose full path would be longer than 260 characters.
That count starts at the drive letter. It is the folder you extract into, plus a folder Windows names after the ZIP, plus the project's folder structure, plus the file name. A handover structure with descriptive folder names and full drawing titles uses most of the allowance on its own — so extracting into a synced OneDrive or SharePoint folder, whose own path is often 60–80 characters long, is usually what tips it over.
Windows doesn't tell you how many files it left out. Choosing Skip carries on without the files it couldn't create, and nothing summarises them afterwards — so a package can look complete when it isn't. For a handover, extract it the way described below rather than checking afterwards.
Move the ZIP to a folder such as C:\DB\ and extract it there, not on the Desktop, in Downloads, or inside OneDrive. Renaming the ZIP to something short first helps too: Extract All creates a folder named after the ZIP, and that name is added to every path inside it.
The free 7-Zip extracts paths that the built-in Windows extractor refuses. Still extract to a short folder: a file that lands on a path over 260 characters may extract successfully and then refuse to open in File Explorer, Excel or AutoCAD.
A Single folder download starts at that folder, so every level above it drops out of the path. Taking a deep structure one stage or discipline at a time is often enough on its own.
The Windows setting LongPathsEnabled does not fix this — File Explorer and its ZIP extractor are excluded from it. The same 260-character limit is behind file names arriving shortened when you upload from a deep folder; see Why do my file names look shortened after uploading from Windows?
On a Mac the limit is far higher, and none of this applies.
References
- Microsoft LearnMaximum Path Length Limitation — the official documentation of the 260-character limit.
- Industry exampleProcore: Why am I unable to download and open a .ZIP file? — the same limit described by another construction platform, with the same advice to extract to the top of the drive.