The past few months have been busy at Blockpad! With fast growth among engineering firms and universities around the world, we have been first and foremost ensuring a quality experience for all our customers.
We have built many of the most requested features, with more exciting developments in the pipeline.
Between the most requested features and our long-term plans, our work has focused on a few key areas:
Compatibility with outside software
Advanced math features
Document features
Spreadsheet features
Group and company features
Whether you are all-in with Blockpad or whether you are learning about Blockpad for the first time, read on for a dive into the latest Blockpad updates, plus a peek at what's ahead. That includes our thoughts on AI.
We want the whole engineering industry to be able to use great calculation software. If you have any requests, feedback, or questions about using Blockpad at your firm, please reach out. Blockpad is made by engineers, for engineers like you. We care deeply about providing the best service in the industry. We look forward to hearing from you!
Compatibility with outside software
At Blockpad we have made the strategic decision to focus mostly on the internal product rather than perfect compatibility with other software. More and more, however, we are able now to improve interoperability.
We have big improvements with Mathcad import coming up in version 1.9. This will include importing more formatting, importing complex programs, and more. Keep an eye out for beta versions in May.
In the second half of 2026, we plan exciting features for working with Word and Excel files. These features have been a long time coming, as there are some complexities for us to take care of - Blockpad files are tricky to map to traditional documents and spreadsheets. But we will have a lot to offer here, so if using Blockpad with Word or Excel files would be helpful to you, stay tuned!
We have heard from users that working with Latex, HTML, and Markdown files would be useful too. These formats and more are on our radar.
Advanced math features
Previously we hadn't focused on symbolic math, but in version 1.9 this is changing. We are finishing features for symbolic equation solving, symbolic calculus, and other functions by wrapping around the SymPy library. Blockpad's upcoming SymPy interface may be the most intuitive and powerful tool for symbolic math of any software tool.
The symbolic equation solving feature is particularly transformative. With this new feature, Blockpad will solve solver sections symbolically as functions if you give more variables than equations. Blockpad will also be able to return all solutions, including complex number solutions.
By building on the widely used SymPy library, we are able to offer highly trusted existing symbolic math capabilities through our user friendly environment.
Document features
In version 1.8, we rolled out some of the most requested features for documents. This includes further customization of page numbers, including continuing page numbers across frame tabs.
We also rolled out exporting PDF features, including clickable links in PDFs, navigation outlines, and PDF/UA accessibility tags.
With the past few releases, we have steadily improved the copy and paste experience. This is especially the case when copying and pasting within documents and between Blockpad and other programs. One neat thing new in version 1.8, there is an option to copy and paste equations into Word as true Word equations.
In the second half of 2026, further improving document features will be a focus. This includes, of course, further compatibility with other document formats. We also plan more powerful formatting, so that Blockpad will be the obvious tool for any word processing with heavy math content.
Spreadsheet features
In version 1.8, we rolled out some of the most requested spreadsheet features, including the ability to cut and paste cells with formulas appropriately adjusted. This release also made it easier to insert charts floating over a spreadsheet, and it introduced an easier way of wrapping text in cells.
File interoperability will be another key area in the near future with spreadsheets. Stay tuned for features to work in more ways with Excel files.
Group and company features
Helping teams get the most out of Blockpad is a top priority. One exciting area is the Blockpad library. We continue to work on refining the library experience, so teams can seamlessly share blocks, data, functions, and more.
In recent releases we have made big improvements in tools for IT administrators, including for volume installs, data options, and license management. If there is a way we can better meet your company's needs, please reach out.
Many more features
We have many other features in the works outside these categories. Some other areas of development include improved charts, scripts and macros, improved find and replace, and Python integration.
No feature is too big or too small to implement. We are working fast towards our long term vision, and we are excited to share upcoming updates.
Again, if there are things you would like to see, please get in touch. Your feedback is very helpful to us.
What about AI?
We think AI will become a big part of engineering work, but human engineers will remain essential. Our AI plans revolve around truly empowering those human engineers and putting them first.
We are exploring several concepts, including:
An AI calculation checker tool
A built-in chatbot to discuss files and make edits
AI blocks and other calculation generation
Interfaces with outside AI agents
Intelligent importing that reorganizes existing spreadsheets around units, clearly named variables, and well documented equations
Features adjacent to LLMs, such as improving the Python integration to leverage AI-generated scripts
We don't have any schedule to share yet for rolling out AI features, but our customers can count on a few principles with AI in Blockpad:
It will always be optional.
We will always respect your data privacy and allow you to keep your files and data entirely local.
It will be designed to make calculations higher quality, not less.
We will not resort to grandiosity and buzzwords. We will stick to keeping serious engineers happy, rather than be one of those companies that shouts AI everywhere to chase funding.
Many AI integrations are already possible. These include using our Python integration to use any Python library in the world, running locally on your machine. These also include prompting LLMs to review or generate Blockpad files.
Thank you to our customers
A special thank you to every engineer, student, and other supporter who has used Blockpad and helped spread the word. Your support is the reason we are able to deliver calculation software that puts engineers first.
Read more about changes in version 1.8, released in April:
Excel is widely used for calculations in engineering, and there are good reasons for that.
It's simple to get started.
It's intuitive to use.
There's a lot under the hood when you need it.
Even with these advantages, it's drawbacks for engineering are well known and widely discussed.
You've almost certainly experienced them for yourself!
Blockpad captures everything great about Excel while bringing capabilities essential for quality engineering work.
The tools engineers need
Formulas visible in math notation
Blockpad is a spreadsheet at heart, and all of the math in Blockpad is written in spreadsheet style formulas.
Unlike conventional spreadsheets, these formulas are
displayed in math notation
so you can understand the calculations much more easily.
Name values in the formula
Named values are at the core of readable calculations, and if you make that hard to do, it's less likely to get done.
Because of that, we made it possible to name values
right there where you type in the math, just like you would write it down on paper.
Units intelligence
Engineers work with all kinds of units of measure, and there's no reason your calculation software can't help you with managing them.
In Blockpad, units intelligence takes care of conversion factors for you,
encourages good unit "book keeping", and helps to catch errors in unit consistency.
With these options, there are more opportunities to actually write down the why of what's being calculated.
There's also the free documentation you get with using named values and units intelligence.
A spreadsheet at heart
To capture the magic of spreadsheets, Blockpad is essentially a spreadsheet under the hood.
Dynamic, updating documents
When you make a change to a formula in Blockpad, that change propagate throughout the document automatically, just like in spreadsheets.
Calculations as formulas
Blockpad math is done by typing out spreadsheet-style formulas, with regular math operators and all of the same
math functions you'd find in Excel like Sqrt() or Sin().
When you're working on a formula, you can click on other values in the document to add them to that formula, just like clicking on a cell in spreadsheets.
Named values and dropdown selections make this feature less necessary, but it's still great to have.
Actual spreadsheets and tables
Blockpad includes spreadsheets and
tables (mini-spreadsheets) built in to the software natively.
That means you can have all of the benefits of a spreadsheet-style cell and grid layout and all of the benefits of Blockpad formulas,
like units intelligence.
Important spreadsheet tools
It's not just the feel of a spreadsheet.
Blockpad also includes important tools for engineering that you find in Excel.
Lookup functions
Lookup functions are a great way to actually get the information from tables that you use in equations.
Conditional formatting
Blockpad has conditional formatting for both spreadsheet cells and regular equations so you can mark values that stand out or don't meet requirements.
Dropdown lists
Dropdown lists allow you to make a controlled list of options for inputs.
They are a great tool for making re-usable calculation templates in Excel, and they're great in Blockpad too.
Value formatting
In Blockpad you can set value formatting like the number of decimals that appear behind a decimal.
There are also settings you won't see in conventional spreadsheets, like number of significant figures shown and engineering notation.
You can leave comments on both equations and cells.
They won't show up when you print the document, and you don't see them unless you click on them.
Advanced features for engineering
Straightforward custom functions
Blockpad makes it easy to create custom functions for calculations you repeat a lot.
You can create and name the function in a regular equation, and then use it anywhere in the file.
Dynamic hidden sections
In Blockpad, you can create sections around groups of equations and text,
and then make those sections shown or hidden based on values in the document.
This is an very versatile part of the program, useful for various things like showing only inputs and results or dynamically showing different images.
In addition to regular lookup functions, Blockpad has VlookupInterpolate() and Interpolate2D(), which are essentially
lookup functions that can interpolate between values.
Solver sections
Blockpad solver section solve systems of equations and update the results live with the rest of the formulas.
There aren't any extra steps required, like running goal seek in Excel.
This way, when an input changes, you know that the output already incorporates the updated solver result.
In-line programming
With Blockpad's in-line programming,
you can run small scripts inside of the document without starting up another environment or learning entirely new syntax.
Worth it to make the change
It's challenging to change the software you're using for calculations.
Not only are there a lot of new things to learn, but it takes time to re-create all of your templates and calcs.
After you take that initial plunge though, you will quickly start seeing all of the benefits from using calculation software actually built for engineering.
Less time writing calcs
Because you can use regular names easily and actually see what you're doing, it's easier to understand the calcs you're writing,
so it takes less time.
Units intelligence helps makes things move faster too, while adding to quality, not sacrificing it.
Catch mistakes as you work
It's a fact of life that mistakes happen.
Blockpad helps you catch mistakes as you make them, instead of scratching your head over things hours later.
More confidence in reusing calculations
Since you can view and understand the math in Blockpad,
you can be more confident in re-using that old file or some calcs from a team member.
Better looking reports
Blockpad enables you to easily create pages long structural reports with professional formatting.
Try Blockpad today
Start a free desktop trial or get started with the web app.
Blockpad offers all of the important parts of Mathcad for engineering, plus more features that are built for practical engineering work.
Whether you're a long time Mathcad user exploring other options or you're checking it out for the first time because you find it's features attractive,
read on to learn about what Blockpad can do.
The important parts of Mathcad
Mathcad has a core set of tools that make it work well for engineering.
Blockpad has all of those tools too.
Auto-updating math
Just like Mathcad (and spreadsheets for that matter), changes in Blockpad automatically propagate throughout the whole document.
We take it for granted, but it's an important point.
Named values
Equations in Blockpad can be easily named at the point they are defined, then those names can be used in further equations.
This part of the program is basic, but crucial.
Easily naming values makes readable equations possible, and readable equations are at the core of creating clear, understandable calculations.
Math notation
Blockpad equations are written a lot like Excel formulas, but when those formulas are used in the document, they are shown in readable math notation.
With equations in math notation, they are much more readable to human eyes, so you can catch errors much more easily.
There's also a visual editor
to make editing these equations is easy too.
Units intelligence
Manually taking care of unit conversions in every calculation is burdensome and mistake prone, so it makes sense that this is a popular Mathcad feature.
That's why units intelligence is available in Blockpad too,
so you can let the computer handle all of the minutia of conversion factors while you focus on the bigger picture.
Units intelligence has further benefits too - it encourages good unit book keeping by default and it helps to catch other errors in an equation, like forgetting to square a value.
Math
Blockpad includes all of the math capabilities that you need for engineering tasks at a practical level.
That is to say, it has the same capabilities as conventional spreadsheets like Excel, with some extra capabilities around solvers, arrays, custom functions, and matrices.
To be fully transparent, Blockpad does not include some higher level math like partial differential equations or Fourier transforms,
so if that is important for your work, Mathcad might still be the better bet.
Word processing
Blockpad's primary environment, "Reports",
is essentially a word processor, with a secondary option to have a notebook-like interface.
Blockpad has all of the same text editing that Mathcad does in these reports, and most people find it even more natural for writing, since it's like other familiar writing tools.
More feature parity
Besides the core features, Blockpad also includes a lot of other things found in Mathcad that help make your documents even better.
Blockpad also features a lot of capabilities that you can't find in Mathcad.
These features were built around practical needs for engineers creating calc documents.
Show steps
Blockpad includes a "Show Steps" option for equations that shows the equation with the actual number values plugged in.
This is great for illustrating what math the program is doing and making the calculations more reviewable.
Native spreadsheets and tables
Spreadsheets provide an intuitive and robust method for handling data at the scale required for engineering calculations.
That's why at Blockpad we built fully functional spreadsheets
and tables (mini-spreadsheets) directly into the program.
The tables in Blockpad are not an integration with a separate program, they are just as much part of Blockpad as the equations.
Because of this, features like units intelligence are possible in spreadsheets too.
Also, with tables in the document, you can use the values in the tables for equations in the document, and vice versa.
This works great for things like lookup values.
When you use headings in a Blockpad file,
you can create an automatically generated table of contents based on those headings and where they are in the file.
This table of contents works as hyperlinks
to those parts in the document too, and you can also style the table of contents to match the rest of your file.
Comments
Blockpad has spreadsheet-style comments that appear when you click on them,
but don't show when you print the document.
Frames and sections to organize documents
Calculation documents can get long with many different kinds of calculations and with repeated versions of the same calculation.
Blockpad has tools to manage this length and complexity by giving you different containers to put the parts of a calculation in.
Frames
A lot like sheets in conventional spreadsheets, Blockpad has frames that are all located in the same file,
but unlike spreadsheets, these frames can be more than just one thing.
They can be
reports (the word processor environment),
actual spreadsheets,
drawings, or
notebooks.
With frames, you can put fundamentally different parts of your calculation file in different frames to organize them better,
but these different frames can still interact with each other in equations.
For example, you could create a meta-information report frame that contains all of the general information on a project,
and this information is kept in a different place in the file than the main calculations.
You can also keep entire spreadsheets of data in a file and reference them in the main calculations as needed.
Sections
Sections are like wrappers that you can put around groups of equations.
This keeps them together and somewhat separated from everything else.
You can reference equations in a section from outside of that section using the section name.
This enables you to repeat the same calculation multiple times with the same name,
but still have all of those values accessible from anywhere in the document.
Blocks - custom calculation modules in the doc
Engineering often has a lot of repeated calculations.
To make these more consistent and useable in a document, Blockpad has blocks,
which are essentially custom calculation modules that you can use inside of a document.
When you make a block definition, you set what inputs are changeable when you use those blocks later.
And once you've made a block definition, you can re-use it as a block inside of files again and again as needed.
Once in the doc, you can reference other values in the file to define the inputs for a block, and then you can reference the outputs from the block in equations in the doc too.
This enables linking from all of your equations to your calculation modules, and vice versa, so you can have one cohesive document.
Easier for Excel users to get started
A lot of Excel users like the idea of Mathcad, but they don't ever make the switch for any number of reasons.
Blockpad makes it easier for them to make that switch.
There's a lot that's familiar in Blockpad - click-to-reference values,
equations as formulas, and of course, having actual spreadsheets available.
Because of this, Excel users find using Blockpad more familiar than Mathcad so they can get started more quickly.
More affordable
At Blockpad, our goal is to make high-quality tools available to engineers throughout the world.
Part of that mission is keeping our pricing reasonable so that more engineers can have access.
At the time of writing this, Mathcad is over 4x the cost of Blockpad for groups - check out our pricing page and see how things compare.
The engineering software of the future
Blockpad is built for engineers by engineers,
and we're excited to make better and better tools for engineers doing real work throughout the world.
