SonicSpec relies on optical character recognition (OCR) technology and an advanced formatting engine to be able to break down specification files into standardized formats that can be used to save specification requirements and associated responses.
Sometimes the OCR and formatting engine encounters specifications that are poor quality or have unusual or non-standard specification formats, causing apparent file upload issues.
We utilize a re-formatting engine with manual verification when issues arise.
To fix this upload issue, simply report the issue:
Click the 'More Details' button from the Projects screen when you hover over the relevant project:
Click the 'Delete Project' button:
Click the 'Report and Fix' button:
By reporting this issue, we will send the specification file through the re-formatting engine, which will re-format the file and send it to our team for a manual review. Once the file has been re-formatted and our team has approved the changes, the file will be re-uploaded and you will be notified. If this issue stems from a PDF quality issue and it cannot be processed, we will also notify you of this status.
What you can do while you wait for the file to be processed
Depending on the severity of the upload issues, you may be able to begin the process of reviewing your specification file. Often, formatting issues only affect part of the document. By reviewing parts of the specification that are unaffected by upload issues, you will already have completed part of your specification review when the new file has been re-uploaded.
If there is an upload error that I didn't catch, can I still be confident that my specification review has no errors?
SonicSpec automates specification reviews by allowing users to save Responses and Quote Considerations with spec phrases, and then display those saved Responses and Quote Considerations anytime that spec phrase is seen again in the future. SonicSpec will only display saved Responses and Quote Considerations for a given spec phrase if it detects a 100% match (i.e. the spec phrase must match another specification phrase in the library verbatim, down to the individual character).
It is possible that an upload error could cause a spec phrase to display incorrectly. For example, if the specification file is of poor quality and the OCR technology mistakes a "5" for an "S", and the resulting spec phrase does not match any spec phrases in the organization's library, then the user will see the resulting spec phrase with no saved Responses or Quote Considerations, and will be prompted to manually review the spec phrase.
This manual review may be inconvenient if the spec phrase with a "5" in it was already saved in the library. If the error hadn't occurred, the user would have saved time by leveraging the saved Response and Quote Considerations for that spec phrase.
Hence, it is possible to lose automation efficiency with an upload error, but you can be confident that you will not encounter unintended consequences, or "wrong answers," from upload issues.