Photo Scope for Xactimate: Turn Roof Photos Into a Draft Scope

A photo scope for Xactimate means starting from roof photographs instead of a carrier document: AI reads the damage, grades severity per facet, and drafts a scope with Xactimate SEL codes and quantities for a trained inspector to confirm. It replaces the note-taking, not the inspection.

Searches for a photo scope mix three different things: photo apps that organize damage images, scope-writing services that rebuild an estimate by hand, and software that drafts a scope from the photos themselves. ESXPress is the third. The camera is the input, a structured Xactimate scope is the output, and a person signs off before it goes anywhere near the carrier.

Photo-Scope looks for the damage signatures an adjuster documents by hand: hail bruise, wind crease, missing shingle, and fastener pull-through, then reads the damage density per square and assigns a severity grade. Detection is strongest on clear, well-lit close-ups and weakest on dark, debris-covered, or shadowed shingles, so the output is a first pass a qualified inspector confirms.

Each confirmed finding maps to a line in the draft scope: a description, a quantity, and an Xactimate SEL code resolved by lookup against a fixed code reference, never generated. You can hold any mapped code against the public Xactimate code dictionary before it lands in the estimate.

Sometimes, and we say so plainly. A photo set rarely proves every dimension or what sits under the shingles. Photo-Scope drafts what the photographs support and raises a flag wherever it needs a measurement or a closer look, so the gaps become review items instead of silent guesses. Where the carrier already sent a scope, converting that document is the cleaner path: turn the carrier scope into ESX instead.

Coverage beats volume. Shoot one context photo per facet, then 3 to 5 ft close-ups of each damage type. A typical roof set runs 15 to 30 images, and grading stays consistent across every frame. Satellite measurement or an infrared pass can supplement the photo set when dimensions or moisture are in question.

Two inputs, one platform. When the carrier already priced the work, convert their scope: PDF to Xactimate preserves the printed price on every line. When the damage itself still needs documenting, start from the roof. Both finish as import-ready Xactimate work, and where the carrier omitted items, the supplement workflow restores them.