How a PDF floor plan becomes a Xactimate sketch
ESXPress converts an insurance carrier's estimate PDF — the scope — into a Xactimate .esx estimate file: line items, quantities, and the unit prices. When the same PDF contains floor plans, those pages can also be exported as Xactimate-ready .skx sketch files.
A sketch export writes one .skx file per floor page, or a single zip with the whole set. One floor, one sketch file; the zip collects them when a scope covers multiple floors.
The scope PDF is read once, not retyped. Because the conversion reads the estimate PDF directly, the floor plans and the line items come from the same document the carrier issued, so the sketch and the estimate describe the same building.
Sketch exports go through the same pipeline as production conversion, and an automated upload, convert, and download smoke test runs every 30 minutes, so the export path is exercised the same way the conversion is.
The rooms are the unit of work. A floor plan might show a garage, a den, closets, and a stairwell — the export builds the rooms on that page, and the estimate already carries the priced line items for the same building.
.skx is the sketch side of the same family as the .esx: one file for the estimate, one sketch file per floor, both produced from the same scope PDF.
Reading the plan once means the room structure and the priced lines can be checked against each other instead of being transcribed twice.
What the export includes, and what it honestly leaves out
Included: the floor plan pages, exported as sketch files, with the rooms built into the sketch. That is the point of the export — the space is already drawn before it reaches Xactimate.
Excluded, honestly: roof planes and facets. The current export draws the floor plans and their rooms; it does not attempt the roof. If your scope needs a roof sketch, the roof portion is drawn in Xactimate as part of your normal sketch work, with the estimate's roof line items to guide it.
Knowing the boundary before you upload saves rework. Floor plans leave the scope PDF as sketches; the roof stays in Xactimate as part of the sketch work you already do there.
This is a current capability, stated up front rather than left vague: the rooms in the plan pages are exported, and roof planes and facets are not. That is the difference between a scope PDF and a finished sketch package, and it matters at review time.
The reviewer checklist stays simple: sketch files for the floor plans, estimate for the priced lines, and nothing in either that the scope does not support.
The honest boundary also protects the review: nobody has to discover a missing roof plane after the file is in Xactimate, because the scope of the export is stated on the page.
The first export takes a few minutes, then it is fast
The first export of a job builds the rooms, and that takes a few minutes. Later exports of the same job are fast. That is the behavior measured in the live test on 2026-09-04.
Practically, that means the first run does the heavy lifting. After the rooms are built, exports of the same job come back quickly, which is what makes the sketch export usable when a scope is reviewed more than once.
Timing matters in a claims workflow. A few minutes on the first build is a different task from a redraw: the export reads pages that already exist and builds the rooms, instead of re-creating the building by hand.
Every sketch export runs through the same production pipeline, so the file you download is the same path a live conversion would take, with the smoke test covering the flow every 30 minutes.
The quick later exports are what make the export usable across a job: the first build lands, and any follow-up export of the same job does not rebuild the rooms from zero.
How the sketch fits with the estimate
A scope conversion produces the .esx estimate; the sketch export produces the .skx files. Together they cover what the adjuster files: priced lines for Xactimate and an existing sketch instead of a redraw.
Prices stay honest. Every line carries the price from the customer's own PDF; if a product code is not recognized, the PDF price is kept and the line is flagged, and the total never silently changes. The numbers you hand over match the scope.
When a line keeps its PDF price and is flagged, it is visible in the estimate, so the review step is about confirming that line against the scope — the same review habit you would apply to any carrier document before submission.
Before a sketch and estimate leave the building, run the free ESX validator on the .esx, and use the reprice checker to see which lines the catalog recognized. Sketches carry the space; estimates carry the priced work.
Because prices are unchanged from the PDF, the compare is direct: open the scope, open the estimate, and the lines match. That is where the sketch and the estimate together earn their place in the file.
No silent changes means the review is about confirming, not recalculating: every line carries the price from the customer PDF, and the flags show exactly which lines need a look before the file goes out.
What Xactimate does when the file arrives
The exported .esx carries no price-list name, no tax block, and no minimums — a design decision from 2026-09-02. Instead, Xactimate's receiver applies the price list you choose when importing: the file asks Xactimate to reprice, which is the intended design. Your chosen price list does the pricing.
A real import test in Xactimate confirmed the file opens clean. So the estimate arrives carrying the carrier's own PDF prices, and your list reprices on import, exactly as designed.
For the receiving side, that also means no regional price defaults are buried in the file. What is in the estimate is what the scope says, and what Xactimate applies is the list you choose at import.
That is also why the sketch and the estimate stay consistent: both are built for the receiving side of Xactimate, with nothing stamped in that would fight the price list you use.
The import side is where the pricing decision happens, and it happens in the software the adjuster already uses: Xactimate imports the file, applies the selected price list, and reprices the lines.
Practical steps: from scope PDF to sketch in hand
The path is short. Upload the carrier's scope PDF, run the conversion, and the estimate comes back as a Xactimate .esx file with the line items, quantities, and unit prices from the PDF. For the floor plans, request the sketch export alongside the conversion.
The sketch export returns one .skx per floor page, or a zip of the set. The first export builds the rooms and takes a few minutes; later exports of the same job are fast. That is the behavior measured on 2026-09-04.
Before the package goes out, run the free ESX validator over the .esx to check the file, and use the reprice checker to see which lines the catalog recognized. The sketches and the estimate then go to Xactimate together: the estimate asks Xactimate to reprice with the list you choose, and the sketches open next to it.
Every step — conversion and sketch export — runs through the same production pipeline, covered by an automated upload, convert, and download smoke test every 30 minutes, so the export you are seeing is the export customers use.
If a scope has more than one floor, the zip is the deliverable; if it is a single plan, one .skx is enough. Either way the export matches the pages the carrier provided.
Run the same check you would run on any estimate: read the flagged lines, confirm the quantities, and let the sketch confirm the space the line items describe.
The sketch and estimate together are the file package: the .skx opens in Xactimate alongside the .esx, and both trace back to the same scope PDF.