A Detailed Course On How To Become A Master At Sketch

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Lessons Concepts

CREATING A ROOM - CREATING A MISSING WALL - CREATING DOORS & WINDOW - CHANGING TYPES

Creating A Basic Sketch

Creating a sketch is easy in Xactimate when you know your Hot Keys or Shortcut Keys. In this first lesson

you will learn how to create a room with ease. Hot Keys are keys located on your key board that will

speed up your estimating time. This limits the time it takes to search through the entire tool bar each

time you need to make a change or add something to sketch.

Understanding The Tabs & Toolbar

Cursor

Copy from Underlay

Copy from Existing

Undo

Room

Wall

Roof Stairs

Deck

Fence

Door Window

Missing Wall

Load Template

Save Template

Break

Vertex

Rotate

Flip Vertical

Flip Horizontal

Set Scale

Orientation

Direction of Floor Covering

Inspect Property

Macro

Properties

Text Elements

Line

Arrow

Rectangle

Ellipse

Fill

Line Color

Line Width

Fill Color

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Step One) Creating A Room

To create rooms in sketch use the Hot Key (R) on your keyboard. This will by default create a 12’ x 12’

room.

You can also click on the Room Icon on the tool bar to get the same effect. You will notice if you left

click on your mouse, the room will turn blue and you will be able to see all the measurements of the

room.

Once this is done you may notice four small white squares on the middle of each wall. If you click your

left mouse button and hold it down, you can move your cursor left, right, up or down and this will

change the size of the room. This is one way to get the size of the room to change, but it’s not often the

fastest.

Try left clicking on a white square once. Notice that on the opposing walls two blue mearuments will

pop up for the inside and two for the outside. By left clicking on the inside wall readings, you can type in

the measurement. Measurments are by feet and inches. Example 12’8

Most of the time you measurment will be from the interor of the structure. Make sure to pay attention

to where you put your measurements or else your entire sketch will be off. This could throw your

estimate off by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

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If you look at the corners of the rooms you will also see small white dots with a red out line. You can

drag these around in the same manner to manipulate different angles.

To move a room around in sketch all you need to do is click the name of the room once and look over to

the right of the word. There’s a small white dot with a red outline. Your curser will turn into four

directional arrows when you move over it. Left click on your mouse and drag and drop it where you

would like it in you work area.

Next double click on the word (Room) and the Room Properties window will pop up. You can change the

name of the room by double clicking where it says (Room) and type in the name of the room you desire.

For example type in (Living Room)

There are many different options in the properties window, but we will go over them later on in the

course.

Step One Step Two

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You can also choose if you want to hide the

name of the room. This is a very useful function

when using annotation tools to explain things

that were going on, such as equipment

placement on water damages.

Step 2) Creating A Missing Wall

Creating a missing section of wall is a simple. Use the Hot Key (M) for Missing Wall. Your mouse will

turn into cross hairs (+) and you need to move your mouse over to where you want the missing wall to

begin. By holding down the left mouse button and dragging the line over to the length you desire then

let go of the left mouse button.

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Now you can click on the Property Icon to choose the desired entry type, such as Rectangle, Flat Arch,

Round Arch, Round or Octagon. Another window will pop up showing you an example of your choice.

Step 3) Creating A Door

Once you have picked the desired missing wall type, you will need to move to putting your doors &

windows in. To put a door in, you can use the Hot Key (D) or choose the Door Icon located on the tool

bar.

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By clicking on the drop down arrow just to the right of the Door Icon, you will be able to select different

types of door, such as Standard, Bifold, Sliding, Dutch, Pocket, Overhead and Gate. Next you will have a

Sub Type, such as Flush, Paneled, French, Louvered, and Half Louvered to choose from.

After you have finished choosing your door type you need to place it on the wall, by following the same

steps as with the missing wall. Hold down the left button on your mouse and drag the door to the size

you need. Then let go of the left mouse button and your door will be placed.

Step 4) Creating A Window

When creating a window in sketch the steps are just as easy as the prior steps. By using the Hot Key (W)

your mouse curser will again turn into cross hairs. Simply left click on your mouse and drag until you get

the desired measurement.

Then you will need to make sure your

door is set to the correct position (how

the door swings) This can be done by

first clicking on the left mouse button

once and the door will highlight blue.

Now use the [ ] keys on your key board

to flip the door into the desired position.

By clicking the left mouse button and

holding it down on the white square in

the middle you can drag & drop the door

also. By doing the same on the white

circles on each end you can resize the

door.

Resize

Move

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By clicking on the Properties Icon you will be able to select different window types, such as Rectangle,

Flat Arch, Round Arch, Round and Octagon.

There are many other options located in the property window but we will get to that later on. These first

steps are to make sure you have a full understanding of the basics.

Window

Properties

Type

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1) Name two ways to create a room. ___________________ ___________________

2) Can you create different style doors? _______

3) Once a door, window or missing wall in put in place you cannot move it again.

Directions: Time to test your knowledge, on what you have learned so far.

Create a new sketch. Now build a room that is 17’1 from left to right. Next, make it 14’4 from top to bottom.

Put in a door on the top left hand wall that is 2’6 wide and 2’ from the top wall. Make sure that the door swings

inwards and that it swings towards the top of the sketch.

Next you will need to create two arched windows on the left side wall. Make each of these walls 5’ wide and 1’9

from the wall on each side.

Now you will need to put in a flat arched entry way using the missing wall function.

Remember to use you Hot Keys to speed up your estimating. Once you have completed you sketch hit the 3 on

your keyboard and you will get a 3D look of your sketch.

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Step 5) Creating A Wall Break

To put a break in the once, first press the Hot Key (B) on your keyboard. When you see your crosshairs

on your cursor, drag your mouse over to the wall you want to create your break. Now you will need to

place the cursor into position by starting where you would like the break to start.

Example: If the break started 4ft from the wall you would need to put your crosshairs over to 4ft from

the wall.

Next, you would left click on your mouse button and hold it down then drag it until you got the desired

length.