Q-BA-CAD is "free" Computer-Aided Design Software using Microsoft Excel

Q-BA-CAD is a way to use Microsoft Excel as a kind of computer-aided design software for drawing, saving, printing and emailing Q-BA-MAZE designs you or anyone else makes. If you already have Excel on your computer, you don't need expensive CAD software to record your designs, you can just use Excel.

You will find Q-BA-CAD plans and Design Spaces in the sidebar of this blog.

Here are two Q-BA-CAD links:

1) a blank Q-BA-CAD file ready for your design: 5x5-DesignSpace

2) a design for a single 50-pack: Q50/plan04

Q-BA-CAD automatically counts the number and type of cubes in a design instantly as the cubes are pasted into the checkerboard layers of the "Design Space." It also calculates the combination of 20-packs and 50-packs necessary to build a design. The number of "cubes available" (ie cubes from a pack not yet placed in a design) is provided to assist someone who is trying to efficiently use EVERY cube.

1) If you make a super cool construction and then draw it with Q-BA-CAD, you will have the plans to rebuild the same design anytime in the future. Or you can email the Excel file you make to a friend anywhere, and they can build your design without ever having seen your actual structure!

2) A few toy shops have asked for plans for putting together three 50-packs so they can make one HUGE construction of Q-BA-MAZE. I have started making designs that use all or most of the 108 cubes that come in three 50-packs. There are different designs display needs in toy stores. For a structure in a window I would design something expansive with a small base that shows off how far a structure can cantilever beyond its base. For a display that many customers will play with and touch, a more compact design with a lower center of gravity, a broad base, and minimal cantilevers is probably a better way to go.