Skip to main content
Back to Help

Upload files directly to Nomic

You can upload directly into a project at any time — no integration required. This is the right path for one-off documents, draft sets, or anything you can't (or don't want to) put in Autodesk Forma / SharePoint / Egnyte. On the Individual plan, uploads are the only ingest path.

How to upload​

  1. Open the project you want the files in.
  2. Click Add files → Upload from your computer.
  3. Drag and drop, or pick files from the file picker. PDFs, images, common Office formats, AutoCAD DWG/DXF, IFC models, and many other project formats are supported.

Uploads happen in the background — you can keep working while files process.

What happens after upload​

PDFs and legacy Office files (.doc, .ppt) start processing on their own, in three stages:

  1. Upload — bytes arrive in Nomic.
  2. Extract — text, drawings, tables, and images are pulled out.
  3. Index — content becomes searchable and ready for Assistant and workflows.

Most documents finish in under a minute. Large drawing sets or scanned PDFs can take several minutes — that's normal.

Everything else is saved but not indexed until you ask. .docx, .pptx, and Excel files need Index Document from the file's action menu (or Index Folder on the folder) before Assistant can search them. You can still attach an unindexed file to a conversation and Assistant will read it there.

DWG files are not document-indexed. Nomic extracts structured CAD data after upload so Assistant can query layers, blocks, attributes, and labels. Open the file in the CAD viewer, or attach it and ask. DXF opens in the same viewer but is not queryable. See Use CAD drawings (DWG).

If the file appears in Nomic but Assistant does not use it yet, indexing may still be running. You can keep working while indexing continues; search results and citations improve as files reach Indexed. For long workflow reviews over large file sets, wait until the key files show Indexed whenever possible.

Archives, Markdown, and images​

  • ZIP archives are stored as one file. Nomic does not unzip them or index the files inside. Unzip locally, then upload the extracted files (keep folder structure if you upload a folder).
  • Markdown (.md) files are stored and can be opened in Nomic. Assistant can read them when you attach them to a conversation. They do not use Index Document for project search. If you need repeatable search and citations, export to PDF and upload that file — it uses normal indexing spend.
  • Standalone images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP) can live in Files but are not document-indexed. For a one-off visual question, paste or drop the image into Assistant. For reviews that need citations or markups, put the image in a PDF and upload the PDF.

When a file fails​

A red status next to a file means processing failed. Try this:

  1. Retry the file from the file's menu. Transient failures are common during large batches.
  2. Check that the file is not empty. Zero-byte files are rejected during upload.
  3. Re-export to PDF if the file is a scan or has an unusual encoding. Saving from Bluebeam, Acrobat, or your CAD package usually fixes it.
  4. Upload smaller batches if many files failed at once. 25-50 files at a time is a safe range.
  5. Check the file format — extremely large or corrupted PDFs can fail outright.

If a file still won't process after a fresh export and a retry, send the file name and a screenshot of the error to Nomic Support — we can often spot the cause quickly.

Tips​

  • Name files like a human would search for them. Indexing uses the file name as a signal.
  • Prefer folders over flat lists so Assistant can scope answers (e.g. "in the Mechanical folder").
  • Keep the real file extension. Nomic uses the filename extension to determine file type during upload, and renaming a file later cannot change or remove that extension.
  • Re-upload, don't rename in place if a file changes a lot — Nomic preserves history this way.
  • Reuse indexed files instead of repeatedly uploading the same large file into new sessions.