How to Sketch a Room in Xactimate the Right Way

The site’s been documented, the scope is coming together, and you’ve aligned with the homeowner or landlord. Now it’s time to bring the structure to life inside Xactimate.

You’ve done the hard part, right?

Getting all of that information into Xactimate can take forever if you’re not familiar with all of the different tools available. Especially when you’re double- or triple-checking your numbers. That’s because when you prepare an estimate, you need to get it exactly right.

Xactimate is a beast of a tool—with so many different features and tools to use, it could require its own graduate degree—which is why I tapped two of our experts, Chris Tilkov and Christopher Muto, to walk you through it. (Disclaimer: You do not have to be named Chris to become an expert in this tool.)

What Is Xactimate Sketch and Why It's Important

Xactimate Sketch allows you to create a detailed room sketch or three-dimensional visual floorplan for damaged properties so contractors and insurance adjusters can better estimate the repair costs.

“The sketch is very important,” says Tilkov. “Xactimate utilizes that sketch for the estimate line items, including variables like walls, floors, and ceilings to dictate the square footage. Those calculations have to be accurate if you want to prepare a great estimate.”

Accuracy is the name of the game with Xactimate, which is why it’s important to make sure you understand how to use each one of the (many) features correctly as you build your sketch. “Accuracy is super important for this entire process,” says Muto. “If you start with a bad sketch, the rest of the estimate will fail based on that. If the measurements are off, you’ll end up with the wrong quantities. There’s a real dollar value associated with that.”

Navigating the Sketch Interface

When you first open Sketch, a blank page appears ready for you to draw or import your floorplan.

Let’s start by walking through the toolbar at the top. In the first section, you can click a tool to draw a certain type of element, like a room, roof, or staircase. You can also add features such as doorways, windows, and missing walls.

The second section gives you more control over the element you’re drawing. Flip an object vertically or horizontally, rotate it, or change the orientation of a ceiling or roof as needed to make an accurate representation of the property.

The third section allows you to freedraw a block, which represents something like a cabinet or fireplace, or add reference areas, reference lines, or reference points where needed. To add plumbing fixtures or furniture, use the Symbols tool.

Now that you’re oriented, it’s time to start sketching. We’ll talk next about a few different ways you can sketch a room using Xactimate:

Method 1: Using the Room Tool to Sketch a Room

The first way to sketch a room using Xactimate is to use the “Room” tool, located in the far left of the toolbar at the top of the Sketch screen. Or, you can use the “R” shortcut. 

“Users are encouraged to use the Room tool, and then use Breaks and Vertex for more complex shapes within the room. You should never start a room using the wall tool,” says Muto. 

Using the room tool  is the “correct” method for sketching your first room—as you’ll see in the next sections, there are a few other methods you can use for speed or efficiency. 

Here’s how:

A Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Room Tool

The Room tool is the best way for you to create the first room in Sketch.

1. First, click the “Room” tool in the toolbar, or use the “R” shortcut. This activates the Room Tool, putting a sample room on your cursor. From there, you can click and place the room within the Sketch screen.

2. If the room is a simple square, click the blue measurement boxes to adjust the size of each wall by typing in the correct numbers. Use a comma to separate feet from inches for quicker entry. For example, 12’4” becomes 12,4—Xactimate will convert that input for you.

This is a much more accurate way to ensure your drawing matches the measurements than trying to drag the walls with your mouse. 

When clicking and dragging walls, be aware that dragging can lead to fractional measurements. It will appear as if you’ve correctly changed the dimensions, but it can be fractions of an inch off unless you manually change the measurement box. “If I have a 9’6 room, rather than dragging it out to those dimensions, I’ll just type it in. That way I know it’s accurate, since dragging can create fractional amounts that throw off the sketch,” says Tilkov.

3. If the room is more complex, you can change the shape of the room by using the break and vertex tools.

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4. Add doors, windows, missing walls or other important elements by using the tools in the toolbar or using shortcuts (we’ll put a list of them in the next section). To create a door, for example, click the Door Tool (D) and hover over the wall where you want the door to be, and left-click. You can then adjust the shape, size, and behavior of these items in the “properties” menu.

Says Tilkov, “Once you have the room sized correctly, you can start to add construction properties within the room, like the ceiling height, door openings, any missing walls, or window openings. I recommend keeping a list of shortcuts handy, since that makes it a lot easier and faster to go through the sketch than clicking the toolbar each time.”

5. Once the room is completed, you can label the room by double-clicking and entering “name” in properties. While in Properties, confirm items such as ceiling type and height. Then you can start on the next room.

6. When you’re finished, make sure your work is saved. The default auto-save in Xactimate is every five minutes, this will ensure you never lose a significant amount of work. If you’re not sure, click “Unsaved changes” at the top of the page.

This is the simplest way to create a Room using Sketch. Of course, few restoration projects are that simple. 

Method 2: CTRL + Click, Hold and Drag to Create Rooms

One way to speed up the process of building an entire floorplan is to use CTRL+ Click, Hold and Drag to “pull” new rooms as you go. Once you’ve created one room, you can easily pull new rooms off of one side of an existing room, adjust the measurements, and add room elements as needed.

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When to Use Copy/Paste for Duplication Technique

It’s best to use this method when sketching similar rooms—like a cookie-cutter high-rise where apartments on the left have one layout and the apartments on the right have another. Rather than draw each one of these out, you can duplicate it as you add floors.

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“It’s usually quicker to drop a new room, but when you have apartment buildings or other properties with repeating structures, where Unit 101 and 201 are identical, you can start with your first room and work off of that,” says Muto.

Step-by-Step Instructions to Create Additional Rooms 

Creating a new room takes just a few steps:

1. Select the existing room that you wish to create a new room off of.
2. Hold CTRL and drag from the handle to add a room adjacent
3. Confirm the dimensions are correct, or modify if needed, by clicking on the blue measurement boxes and typing the correct numbers and/or adding breaks/vertices where needed.
4. Just as you would with any new room, go to the “Properties” tab and edit any relevant information, like wall thickness or ceiling height.
5. Change or add room elements like doors, windows, and reference blocks for appliances or cabinets using the tools in the toolbar or relevant shortcuts. 
6. Once the room is completed, you can start on to the next room. 
7. When you’re finished, make sure your work is saved. The default auto-save in Xactimate is every five minutes, this will ensure you never lose a significant amount of work. If you’re not sure, click “Unsaved changes” at the top of the page.

You can also duplicate a room using copy/paste rather than “pulling” a new room with CTRL+ Click. If you choose this method, then duplicating a room means all of the room properties will be copied over, so make sure to edit any necessary items like wall thickness, ceiling heights, floor or ceiling type, and the room name or grouping.

Method 3: Sketching a Room Using the Wall Tool

Another common method for sketching a room is using the Wall Tool, or Shift+W. However, that might not be your best approach. As tempting as it is to drag and drop four walls together, it’s best to use the Room Tool first.

When to Use the Wall Tool

“If you sketch a room out of walls instead of the Room Tool, it can cause some issues,” says Tilkov. “It seems easier because you don’t have to fuss with all of the breaks or vertices, but you can see how tricky it is to get the walls to connect in the right place, and so it’s much more finicky.”

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Can you use the Wall Tool? Of course. But both Tilkov and Muto did not recommend it, except to add partial walls within an existing floorplan.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Wall Tool 

While you can use the Wall Tool to create a room from scratch, instead, think of it as a way to edit a larger floorplan.

1. Choose the Wall Tool from the top toolbar, or press “Shift+W” as a shortcut. This activates the wall tool. 
2. Hover over where you want to create a wall. Then, left- click and drag until the wall appears as you’d like. 
3. Adjust the dimensions by selecting the measurement boxes and typing in the correct numbers.
4. Though our experts don’t recommend it because it can introduce minor inaccuracies, you can add a connecting wall by clicking the endpoint of an existing wall, then click and drag each wall to create the room. If you choose this method, make sure that each wall is connected and closed and that the measurements are correct before moving forward.
5. From there, you can add other room elements like doors, windows, and reference blocks for appliances or cabinets using the tools in the toolbar or relevant shortcuts. 
6. When you’re finished, make sure your work is saved. The default auto-save in Xactimate is every five minutes, this will ensure you never lose a significant amount of work. If you’re not sure, click “Unsaved changes” at the top of the page.

Note that this is different from the Missing Wall tool, which allows you to sketch an opening in a wall. This can represent partial walls, service windows, large doorways, or other aspects of a more open floorplan.

Tips for Accuracy and Efficiency in Xactimate Sketch

Once you start playing around in Xactimate Sketch, you can see how flexible the tool can be. You can sketch a room several different ways; what matters more is the general knowledge behind the sketch. Know the goal behind the sketch before you begin.

Says Tilkov, “Have the scope of work ahead of time if you can, before you sketch. If you know that the flooring needs to be replaced, you can focus on those details. For example, if you know that a continuous area, like a living area and hallway, that’s a more important element to delineate than just the rooms themselves.”

This gets complicated, but the more you can accurately represent the room you’re sketching with an eye to what work you need to complete, the easier it will be for all of the project stakeholders—the owners, to visualize what’s happening; the contractors, to have an accurate plan; and the insurance adjuster, who can make sure the cost matches the work.

That’s why…

1. Measurements are Everything

Whether a sketch is useful or not comes down to the measurements. “The biggest thing to make sure your sketch works is that all the information is up to date,” says Muto. “Whether you use DocuSketch’s cameras or go out to the job site and tape measure everything yourself, you have to have accurate measurements. Once you have those measurements, you’re good to go.”

Solid measurements give you the foundation to do more with your sketch. But it also can expedite the process if you use the Underlay Tool (the fourth and final section) to import a floor plan image from real estate sales, engineering blueprints, or DocuSketch to move more quickly building rooms.

To use the Underlay Tool to build your room:

1. In the top toolbar, go to Options > Import > Import Underlay Image
2. Upload or select the floor plan image you want to use as your underlay. 
3. Give Xactimate a scale for measurements by adding or editing at least one wall with the correct dimensions. Always use the longest distance available for the best accuracy.
4. Then, you can start sketching, using the Room Tool.
5. Trace over all of the relevant room elements, like doors, windows, or other room properties like missing walls.
6. Once the room is completed, you can start on to the next room. When you’re finished, make sure your work is saved. The default auto-save in Xactimate is every five minutes, this will ensure you never lose a significant amount of work. If you’re not sure, click “Unsaved changes” at the top of the page.

2. Use Shortcuts to Move Faster

As you get more comfortable in Sketch, you can move faster if you use shortcuts. See a full list of Xactimate shortcuts here.

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“Any decent estimator over time knows the shortcuts. I can enter five rooms in ten seconds and then adjust the measurements quickly to make a floorplan. The toolbar is great for new users, but the sooner you get comfortable with shortcuts, the better off you’ll be,” says Muto.

3. Check Your Room Properties in 3D

Before you finish a room, click the Properties icon to set the other important aspects of a room, like ceiling height, and wall thickness. Forgetting this step can miss on-the-ground elements of doing repair or restoration work—for example, a third-floor room with a pitched ceiling feels completely different than a family room with vaulted ceilings or exposed beams.

Once you’ve set your room properties, you can also double check your work by going to the bottom right corner and selecting the 3D View button. That will show you immediately if you’ve created a room that looks accurate, or if you’ve accidentally copied over the wrong type of ceiling or roof properties when using the duplication method.

This includes all of your room properties, including doors, windows, and reference blocks. “With any interior sketch, you’ll want to add reference blocks or symbols for any large object, like showers, cabinets, or appliances,” says Tilkov. “Reference blocks have behavior properties that allow you to make changes, like deducting the linear or square footage of the floor behind. That way when you’re looking at the work to be done, like tiling a bathroom floor, you already know how big the shower or bathtub is in the space.”

DocuSketch Helps You Skip a Step

DocuSketch turns the estimating process into a seamless engagement that takes less than 48 hours.

• Instead of measuring every wall by hand and building the sketch yourself, capturing a standard apartment with DocuSketch often takes just 20 minutes.
• From there, simply submit your walkthrough and let our team handle the rest. We’ll deliver an accurate Xactimate Sketch, typically within two business days.

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“DocuSketch makes this entire process significantly easier,” says Muto. “Once our team gets the floor plan, they can prepare the .esx file so all you have to worry about is sending it to the insurance adjuster or to the contractor, depending on where you are in the process.”

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Sketch your next room faster with DocuSketch >

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