Use this article when you need a spreadsheet copy of your substrate library — to audit current prices, share the catalogue with a buyer, or edit many rows at once before importing them back. After this you will have an XLSX of every substrate visible in the table, with the ID column intact for round-trip edits.

Before you begin

No editing role is required to export — read access to Estimate Setup → Substrates is enough. MIS Admin or any user who can open the substrate table can produce the file.
Decide which subcategory you need — Commercial Print or Large Format. Export pulls only the table you currently have open; the two subcategories use different column sets and are exported separately.
If you plan to edit and re-import, read Import substrates from a file before you change cells — the ID column is what makes the round-trip update existing rows instead of creating duplicates.

Steps

1. Open the substrate table

In Estimate Setup, open Substrates and choose Commercial Print or Large Format. Apply any column filters you want reflected in the export — the file mirrors the rows visible in the table.

2. Export the file

Choose Export. Estimator downloads an XLSX file of every substrate in the current view. The download lands in your browser's default downloads folder. Estimator confirms the row count, for example Exported 47 rows.

If the table is empty, Export does not produce a file — add at least one substrate first.

3. Review the file structure

Open the XLSX in Excel, Numbers, or another spreadsheet tool. Look for:

Identification columns

ID — Estimator's stable identifier for each substrate. Keep this column intact for any round-trip edit. Re-importing a row without its ID creates a new substrate instead of updating the existing one.
Name — the substrate's customer-visible name (e.g., "Silk 130gsm SRA1").
Code — your internal SKU or supplier code, if you set one.

Classification columns

Substrate Type, Paper Type, Coat, Grain Direction — the enum values currently set on each row. These columns drive how Estimator filters substrate options on the quote.

Specification columns

Weight — gsm or lb, per the column the table is configured with.
Sheet sizes — comma-separated list of stocked parent sheets (e.g., "SRA3, SRA2, SRA1").

Pricing columns

Price — unit price in the tenant currency.
Price UOM — unit of measure the price refers to (e.g., "per sheet", "per kg").

Linking columns

Tags — comma-separated tag names attached to the substrate (e.g., "Premium, Coated, FSC").
Brands — comma-separated brand names (e.g., "Mohawk, Arctic Volume").

4. Use the file

Pick the option that matches your task:

Audit only. Save the file as a snapshot. No further action needed.
Share with a buyer or supplier. Strip the ID column before sharing if the recipient does not need it.
Edit for bulk update. Edit the values you need to change — typically Price, Weight, Coat, Tags, or Brands — and keep the ID column untouched. Re-import the file by following Import substrates from a file.

The export itself does not change any setup. The substrate library on quotes is unchanged until you re-import and Apply Changes.

Things to know

The export reflects the rows visible after any column filters you have applied. If you only see 12 of 47 rows because of a tag filter, the file contains 12 rows. Clear filters before exporting if you want the full library.
Parent sheet and cut-to-size configuration is not fully preserved on export. Child cut sizes are not included in the file, and re-importing an exported parent row can reset its parent-sheet properties. Use the in-app parent-sheet editor for cut-to-size setup until product support for spreadsheet round-trip improves.
The exported XLSX includes columns specific to the open subcategory. Commercial Print and Large Format files cannot be combined into one sheet — they have different column sets and must be re-imported into the same subcategory they came from.