How Ekua works

How to use it

1. 1

   Open the sign-in page

   On ekua.app press "Sign in" at the top right.

2. 2

   Email and password

   Enter your account credentials and press Sign in.

3. 3

   Email code

   The first time you sign in from a browser, a 6-digit code arrives by email. With "Trust this device for 60 days" that browser won't ask for it again.

4. 4

   Organisation

   If you belong to more than one organisation, choose which one to enter: the list of its appraisals opens.

What you'll find

• Search and view

  Search filters by name as you type; the switch next to it toggles between rows and cards. Your choice is remembered.

• Suggest and Documentation

  Two tiles above the list: one to tell the Ekua team what's missing, the other opens this guide in a new tab.

• Reconstructions in progress

  A blue dot on an appraisal means one of its scans is being processed.

• Opening

  On desktop the appraisal opens in a side panel, with the list still visible behind it; on a phone it opens full page.

• ••• menu

  On every appraisal (or with a right-click): share, export, rename and delete without opening it.

• Top bar

  The Demo badge, the notifications bell and the account menu with organization switching, Settings, Documentation, light or dark theme and Sign out.

• Import

  Next to New appraisal: turns a Word, Excel or PDF document into an appraisal. Dragging a file onto the home page opens the same window. See Import an appraisal.

What you'll find

• Bell

  A dot means there's something new; opening the menu clears it, and items that just arrived stay marked as New.

• What's new

  The notification opens the timeline of changes, newest first: for each date, the changes grouped by area, one line each.

How to use it

1. 1

   Appraisal name

   Required: a name you will recognise, like "Motor claim — Via Roma 14".

2. 2

   Case number

   Required too: the case reference. Within the same firm two appraisals can't share a case number.

3. 3

   Client name

   Optional. If you also pick a type, the name goes into the appraisal text under "Insured".

4. 4

   Type

   Optional. Prefills the text with the chosen template: motor damage, fire, theft and robbery, catastrophe, agricultural and hail, technology, general liability, road accident, police report, or one of your organisation's templates.

5. 5

   Documents

   Drag into the right-hand column, or pick from your computer, PDF, Word, Excel or text files.

6. 6

   Create

   The appraisal opens straight away; documents upload in the background, one after another.

How to use it

1. 1

   Open

   From the home page press "Import", next to New appraisal, or drag the file onto the home page.

2. 2

   Choose the document

   Drag it into the box or pick it from your computer: Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx) or PDF.

3. 3

   Import

   The appraisal opens with the document in its own format and look, and the original file stays among the attachments. See Imported documents.

What you'll find

• Export

  Generates the appraisal PDF with text, scans and images, ready to send. An imported appraisal is exported in its original format.

• Drag and drop

  Drag documents from your computer onto any tab: they go to the attachments, and the appraisal opens the Attachments tab to show them. Images from your computer aren't uploaded: see Gallery.

• ••• menu

  Share (copies the public link), Rename, Save as template, Suggest an improvement, Delete (with confirmation, can't be undone).

• Tabs

  The bar stays at the top as you scroll. The open tab is in the address: reloading or sharing the link brings you back to the same place.

• Panel

  Opened from the home page on desktop, the appraisal expands to full screen from the button at the top left.

What you'll find

• Ask the appraisal

  The button at the bottom left opens a chat over the appraisal: a question about the text, like "What's the plate number?": the answer is always a piece of the text, and See source shows the line it comes from; Show in the text closes the chat and selects it in the document. The reading model downloads with the first question and runs in the browser: the text never leaves the device.

• Automatic saving

  Every change saves itself shortly after you stop typing, and finishes saving even if you go back to the home page. There's no Save button.

• Formatting

  Bold, italic, strikethrough, headings, lists and quotes from the bar at the top, which stays visible as you scroll.

• Tables

  From the table's ••• menu, or by right-clicking a cell, add or remove rows and columns, toggle the header or delete the table.

• Images

  The image button opens large gallery previews and the scans' Video tiles, to pick a frame from: one click selects, Insert confirms, a double-click does both.

• Image sizes

  Dragging the handle snaps the image to three sizes: small, medium or large at full width. The same are in the image's ••• menu (or right-click), where you can also replace or delete it.

• Map of the site

  The map button in the bar opens the map of the claim site. See Map of the site.

What you'll find

• Ask the appraisal

  The button at the bottom left opens a chat over the appraisal: a question about the text, like "What's the plate number?": the answer is always a piece of the text, and See source shows the line it comes from; Show in the text closes the chat and selects it in the document. The reading model downloads with the first question and runs in the browser: the text never leaves the device.

• PDF

  Click a piece of text on the page and type: changes use the document's own fonts and stay in place, even when viewing the whole page.

• Word and Excel

  They're edited as in their own programs: the document stays a .docx or an .xlsx.

• Top bar

  File name, save status and the Map of the site, Image and Draw commands, the same for all three formats.

• Image

  Picks a photo from the gallery and puts it in the document: on the visible PDF page, at the cursor in Word, on the selected cell in Excel.

• Draw

  Lines, arrows, rectangles, ellipses and freehand, with colors and widths: the drawing goes into the document as an image.

• Frames in the document

  From the Image button you can also pick a frame from a scan: it goes to the gallery and into the document.

What you'll find

• Built-in templates

  Nine templates for the most common types. The switch decides which ones appear when choosing a type.

• Organisation templates

  They are shared with the whole firm: a template a colleague uploads is there for you too, with the name of whoever wrote it.

• Upload a template

  From a PDF or Word file: the text is read, split into title and sections, and the fields to fill are recognised.

• Save as template

  From an appraisal's ••• menu, its current text becomes a new template.

• Edit, rename, delete

  Organisation templates open in the same editor as the appraisal.

What you'll find

• Preview

  Each image opens full screen and you can browse the others; clicking outside the image closes it.

• Draw

  From the preview you annotate the image freehand and save it again. If the image is already in the appraisal text, choose whether to update the text too or save without it: in that case the text loses the link.

• Scan footage

  Each scan has its own Video tile at the start of the grid: hovering it plays through the footage frames, opening it lets you pick which to add. See Frames from the scans.

• Download and delete

  From the image preview.

• In the text and documents

  Gallery images can be inserted into the appraisal text and into imported documents.

What you'll find

• Upload files

  PDF, Word, Excel and text files, from the button or by dragging them onto the appraisal. They can also be uploaded from the appraisal creation form.

• Preview and download

  PDFs can be read without downloading; other formats are downloaded.

• Delete

  From the document's menu.

What you'll find

• Queued

  The footage is uploaded and waiting for its turn to be reconstructed.

• Processing

  The model is being reconstructed: percentage and bar rise by themselves. You can close the page, the work continues.

• Ready

  The 3D model is available: the row opens the viewer.

• Error

  The reconstruction failed: the credit is refunded and from the ••• menu you restart it on the data already uploaded, without using another one.

• End-of-scan notice

  When a reconstruction finishes a notice appears, wherever you are on the platform, with a button to open it. Whoever started it also gets an email.

• ••• menu

  Share (ready scans), Download raw images (also while processing), Restart the scan (failed ones), Stop the scan (those stuck for more than fifteen minutes), Delete the scan (finished ones). An item only appears when it can be used; the same open with a right-click.

What you'll find

• Exploring

  Rotate, zoom and pan the model with mouse or fingers. The side arrows move to the previous or next ready scan.

• Scan details

  At the bottom left: anchoring, capture date and coordinates.

• Screenshot

  Capture the view, highlight the damage freehand, then save it to the gallery, attach it to the appraisal or download it.

How to use it

1. 1

   Start

   On a phone, in the Scans tab, press "New 3D scan".

2. 2

   Guide

   Before you start, a few screens recall what makes a good capture: a clean lens, the area in frame, slow movement.

3. 3

   Permissions

   Then one permission per screen: camera, motion sensors and location. Each explains what it's for before the phone asks.

4. 4

   Ready

   The frame appears under a blurred veil with a single button: "Start scan".

5. 5

   Hold the phone upright

   Capture with the phone held upright, in portrait. Landscape is not supported yet: it is on the way.

6. 6

   Capture

   Move slowly around the scene. Each time the phone moves far enough a frame is taken: the dot in the middle pulses and, where supported, the phone vibrates. The ring along the edge fills up until the scan is complete.

7. 7

   Upload

   The capture is assembled on the phone and uploaded. The data stays on the device until the server confirms it has it: if the connection drops the capture isn't lost, and the upload is retried.

How to use it

1. 1

   Open

   In the Gallery, open the scan's Video tile: hovering it shows the footage.

2. 2

   Find the frame

   Scroll with the slider, jump with the thumbnails, or use the ← → arrows to move one frame at a time.

3. 3

   Add to gallery

   The frame in view goes into the gallery at full resolution. Add as many as you need: the ones already taken are marked on the slider.

How to use it

1. 1

   Open

   From the ••• menu of a ready or processing scan choose "Download raw images".

2. 2

   Preview

   The window shows the first seconds of the footage and the estimated size of the archive.

3. 3

   Download

   The extraction of the 144 full-quality JPEG frames starts, collected in a ZIP archive.

What you'll find

• Balance

  In Settings, Credits section.

• Purchase

  Credit packs are purchased from the Ekua app for iOS and Android. Administrators and appraisers can buy them.

• Refund

  If a reconstruction fails, the credit goes back to the balance automatically.

What you'll find

• Account

  Profile photo and email.

• Credits

  The current balance. See Credits.

• Security

  Password change and trusted devices, managed in a separate window. See Security.

• Workspace

  The active organization, appraisal templates with how many are active, and the people. See People and roles.

• Data

  The region where the firm's appraisals, 3D scans and documents are stored: the one it was created in.

• API

  The keys to connect Ekua to the firm's software. See API.

• Appearance

  Language (Italian, English, German, Spanish) and, on desktop, opening appraisals full screen. The light or dark theme is in the account menu.

• App and actions

  Platform version, Sign out and Delete account (requires the password).

What you'll find

• Choice at sign-in

  If you belong to more than one organisation, you choose which one to enter after signing in.

• Switching

  From the account menu, "Select workspace": appraisals, scans, templates and credits become those of the chosen organisation.

• Separate data

  Each organisation only sees its own data: nothing passes from one firm to another.

What you'll find

• Email code

  The first sign-in from a browser or phone asks for a 6-digit code sent to the account's email.

• Trusted devices

  With "Remember this device" the code isn't asked again for 60 days. In Settings the Trusted devices row shows how many there are; Manage opens the list with each one's last use: remove those you no longer use, or a lost phone.

• Change password

  You need the current password and an email code. Other sessions and remembered devices are signed out; the one in use stays open.

What you'll find

• Appraisal

  Share copies the link to the public page on ekua.app: text, 3D scans, images and attachments, read-only, with the name, photo, role, email and firm of whoever signs it.

• Scan

  From a ready scan's menu, Share copies the link to the page with the 3D models alone, with their details.

• Scans in progress

  A scan that isn't ready yet appears with its status and percentage, and the 3D model opens on its own as soon as it's ready. A failed scan says so, instead of opening an empty viewer.

How to use it

1. 1

   Open

   From the Suggest an improvement tile on the home page, or from an appraisal's ••• menu.

2. 2

   Write

   Describe what you need or what doesn't work as you expect.

3. 3

   Send

   The message reaches the Ekua team with your address, so they can reply.

What you'll find

• Limited features

  Because of licensing limits some features are restricted or not fully functional.

• Verification signatures

  For security, images and 3D models don't carry the cryptographic signature that certifies their integrity in the full version.