Uploading a specification set allows you to organize project specifications into searchable sections and automatically generate a submittal log. This article explains how to upload a specification set, review extracted sections, and create submittals from the specification book.
Navigate to the project where you want to upload a specification set.
Select Documents > Specifications.
Click New Specification Set.
Enter the required information:
Specification Set Name
Issue Date
Revision Name
(Optional) Expand Advanced Options to configure additional settings:
Create Set Without Uploading a File – Creates the specification set without attaching a PDF.
Section Extraction Method – Determines how Buildend identifies specification sections.
Automatic – Uses the PDF outline if available. If no outline exists, Buildend uses the page headers.
Page Headers – Uses only the page headers to identify sections.
Recommendation: Select Automatic. If the extracted sections are not accurate, you can rerun the extraction using Page Headers later.
Click Attach Files and upload your specification PDF.
Click Save Set and Next.
Reviewing Extracted Sections
After the file is uploaded, Buildend displays all detected specification sections along with their page numbers.
Review the extracted sections and update any information as needed.
If the extracted sections are not correct, click Refetch Sections (Headers).
This refreshes the section list using only the page headers.
Review the refreshed sections and make any necessary changes.
To manually add a section, click the + button at the bottom of the page.
When finished, click Save Section and Next.
Searching for Submittals
After saving the sections, you can search the specification set for submittals.
Select the specification format:
CSI
CSC
Refer to the Understanding the CSI Format or Understanding the CSC Format support articles for more information about choosing the correct format.
Exclude any specification sections that should not be included in the search, such as:
Project Details
Summary of Work
Any other sections you do not want searched
Click Search for Submittals. Buildend searches each specification section for submittals.
Reviewing Extracted Submittals
After the search is complete, review the generated submittals.
You can:
Edit the submittal description, name, number, or type.
Delete individual submittals.
Select multiple submittals and merge them into a single submittal.
Once you have verified the information, click Save Submittals and Close. Buildend creates the submittals in the project Submittal Log.
Viewing Specification Sections and Submittals
After the process is complete:
Navigate to Documents > Specifications to view all extracted specification sections.
Click any specification section to open the PDF directly to that section.
Navigate to Logs > Submittals to view the generated submittal log.
Open any submittal to view its details.
Each submittal includes a link to its associated specification section. Selecting the link opens the specification PDF directly to the section where the submittal was found.