| 11/13/2007 3:08 PM |
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Can anyone recommend a good, basic, one-dimensional drawing program? I am looking for something cheap to draw roof diagrams, liability scene layouts, etc. I use XM8 sketch for the estimate, but I need something similar to PowerClaims drawing program (without paying a yearly fee) that has their type features. I don't need (or want) to draw a 3-D buildings. Any ideas?
FYI, I use and recommend PDF factory and MyFax. |
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| 11/13/2007 4:09 PM |
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Rapid sketch is basic. www.rapidsketch.com
I don't understand though.. You say you use Xactimate for estimates. Xactimate's Sketch is one of the very best, most powerful sketching program for estimating out there, taken you know how to use it.
Paige
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| 11/13/2007 4:37 PM |
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Paige
I use XM8's sketch for property estimating. I need something different for say a liability scene investigation, to draw an intersection and two vehicles. Or if I need to add a simple perimeter sketch of a house exterior for a replacement cost valuation, when the XM8 sketch only involves two rooms. |
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Tim_Johnson Member Posts:243  
| 11/13/2007 4:40 PM |
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We just purchased a powerful diagraming program for $395.00. It is written by VS Visual Statements out of Canada. Their demo to our office had us signed up before we got off of the phone with them. It will do property and accident scenes. You can actually do a roadway diagram and overlay it onto a satellite image. Pretty cool stuff.
Tim Johnson
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hostCatAdjuster.org Founder Posts:709 
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Tim_JohnsonMember Posts:243
| 11/13/2007 6:32 PM |
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That most successful web sight was founded by Andrew Logan who owns some Frontier Adjuster offices in the Boston, MA. area
Tim Johnson
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| 11/13/2007 7:40 PM |
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I use Acculine and a mechanical pencil, scan and send. I also include an aerial photo.
JWG
I know the voices aren't real, but sometimes they're right!
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BobH Veteran Member Posts:759 
| 11/13/2007 8:40 PM |
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Posted By Odie Wyatt on 11/13/2007 4:37 PM
I use XM8's sketch for property estimating.
...Or if I need to add a simple perimeter sketch of a house exterior for a replacement cost valuation, when the XM8 sketch only involves two rooms.
Have you ever tried using Xactimate Sketch to draw the footprint of the house as one "room"?
You have to use the "break" and "vertex" tools a lot, but unless it is a very complex footprint you just stretch it out as one room, and tweak the walls as needed to get it right. I set the wall thickness to 1 inch and the sf of the "room" is pretty close to the SF of the house.
If the garage is attached, you can create it as a separate room. That gives the living SF and the total SF. Bob H
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| 11/13/2007 10:17 PM |
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Good tips.
I haven't tried drawing one large "room"for the house. Do you have to do it as two estimates, if you are already using a sketch for your damage estimate, or can use just not connect the two diagrams together?
The last page on my estimates, before the O & P, etc. is Grand Total Areas. The Grand Total Area lists the floor area and a slightly larger total area. I always thought the larger total area included the space taken up by the walls, if so, you wouldn't have to do the 1" thick wall step.
I have also used the green line drawing tool in XM8, but it is very thin and doesn't connect at corners very well, then I would type in the measurements.
Thanks for the ideas!
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BobHVeteran Member Posts:759
| 11/13/2007 10:29 PM |
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Posted By Odie Wyatt on 11/13/2007 10:17 PM
Do you have to do it as two estimates, if you are already using a sketch for your damage estimate, or can use just not connect the two diagrams together?
You can create the "whole house" diagram as a separate level, prints on a separate page.
Due to the fact that Sketch used to freeze up and crash in the older versions - I am very used to creating and estimate then "save as" ver 01, 02, 03, 04 as I create the estimate. So I just enter the claim info, save it, then save it as a Valuation (not estimate) and I can plug that SF into the questions to get the RC on the structure.
Good tip on the "total" area - I know the section you are talking about (Grand total Areas). I just tried that with a small bathroom claim, and see that the floor area is 47.33 Sf but the "total area" is 57.67 Sf. You are right, it is looking a the footprint of the sketch, including the wall thickness. I have been using Sketch since it was introduced and never saw that - and that is useful for getting the SF of a building by drawing the footprint as one "room".
As everyone knows, the Xactimate diagrams tend to be small on the page when printed. I set them to include inner and outer measurements, save it as PDF. Then within Adobe I "capture" just the diagram part of the page (like cropping). The tool for that has a "camera" icon. Then I paste that into a word document that has the claim # and heading, it goes faster than it sounds, and fills the page with the diagram. Bob H
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| 11/15/2007 3:32 PM |
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I have used the Grand Total Area before on a large fire to get the square footage correct for attic insulation. Another item that it may work for is subfloor, where it goes under all the walls.
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Jud G. Advanced Member Posts:509
| 11/18/2008 9:44 AM |
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Odie,
I'm interested in hearing what you find out for another software to use for your liability diagrams. Have you considered using Paintbrush and pasting the diagram into an Excel created form? That would be one 'non-subscribed' consideration.
I'm like you in that I really don't prefer xactimate for liability diagrams, but like it for the photograph sheets (if that's all I'm doing). Xactimate allows you to put in the least amount of information than IntegriClaim and Simsol so you can just use it for a nice photograph layout. As you may already know, there's two formats- one which allows the captions on the bottom of each photo and the other allows you to put the captions to the right. The format putting the captions to the right allows you to put much more information for each photo without it being cut off.
My number one preference for liability claims is Simsol since their photo sheets have a nice layout and they allow you to create fairly simple, to scale (regardless of size), diagrams. IntegriClaim requires too much data entry to get to the photographs and diagram features. Then, the scale diagram for IntegriClaim is just too small and very limited. However, if you know your diagram will not be too involved, you can still create a nice one in IntegriClaim.
I use Xactimate for most all of my property claims, but just can't justify its use for liability claims unless I'm only using it for the photos. I haven't used PowerClaim.
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okclarrydVeteran Member Posts:954
| 11/18/2008 9:23 PM |
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I found that if you "zoom" the diagram nearly as large as it will get, it will print larger on the page. But, it has a limit and never does fill the page. Also, if you move the annotations down below the sketch, it will print as portrait, not landscape.
Never thought of the pdf procedure.
Larry D Hardin
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| 11/21/2008 9:07 PM |
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Jud
I made this post in 2007 when it was slow and I was taking any claim I could get. As 2008 has been busier, I have not had that many liability claims. The ones I had, I just used graph paper and a black Paper-Mate Flair pen and hand drew what I needed. I then fax it to myself to convert it to a PDF (my scanned images never come out right). When I put it in the file, the graph paper lines are not visible. I prefer the larger photo format in Xactimate with the captions below each photo. The Image Name box is small, but the Description box has always been big enough.
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HuskerCatVeteran Member Posts:762
| 11/21/2008 9:31 PM |
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If you can fax it to yourself, you can probably also scan it and save a step or 2. That's what I always did. Scan, save, attach like anything else.
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BobHVeteran Member Posts:759
| 11/22/2008 12:12 AM |
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Posted By Odie Wyatt on 21 Nov 2008 09:07 PM
...I then fax it to myself to convert it to a PDF (my scanned images never come out right).
Try changing your setting to GRAYSCALE rather than Black & white, at 150 Dots per Inch. Most scanners will default to B&W if not color, and you lose all the detail of your image. Even a typed letter scanned as Grayscale will be much more legible than B&W, and more legible than a fax.
I also scan to PDF, but with that Grayscale setting it is a one step process.
Bob H
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| 11/22/2008 1:22 PM |
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The best for drawing that stuff you describe is
The drawing tools in
EXCEL
You have all the cool little shapes,arrows and text box's , you can do your calculations right in the drawing
right click anywhere on theExcel toolbar and check "drawing" for the drawing tools
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HuskerCatVeteran Member Posts:762
| 11/22/2008 3:02 PM |
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Bob just jogged my memory on that...and he's right about the quality setting. Worked like a charm then, and must still. Just hadn't encountered that issue for awhile.
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| 03/24/2010 3:13 PM |
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I use AssureCalc which uses an overlay image. The best part is I do the diagram before I even go out to the loss and put it in my folder as my scope sheet. It has save me at least 30 min per claim. During the last denver hail storm i did 2 more claims a day then the top producer for the company. www.assurecalc.com its cheep and you do what the other diagraming serveces do in 5 min. |
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| 03/25/2010 3:04 PM |
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COLA I like the program too from being trained on it, but I was a bit uncertain about its accuracy since it seemed kind of grainy / fuzzy at the corners of a given structure. How did you resolve that part of it... more measurements on your own? |
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