Upgrading from Designer to PADS Maker

Users that purchased Designer 1.0 or 1.1 licenses will receive a free upgrade to PADS Maker Schematic and Layout. Prior to installing PADS Maker, users should uninstall Designer products.

  1. Uninstall Designer Schematic and Designer Layout (Control Panel)
  2. Install PADS Maker Software
  3. Start PADS Maker Schematic and enter license activation code
  4. Start PADS Maker Layout and enter license activation code
  5. Go into your PartQuest Profile and select PADS Maker as your Default Flow
  6. In your PartQuest Profile, select Dropbox or Direct Download for Maker. PQ Tools are setup in the background so give it 5 minutes to complete before downloading new parts.
  7. Download a part for PADS Maker.
    Note: If you have PADS Maker Schematic or Layout open when you initially setup PartQuest Direct or Dropbox and download your 1st part, you will need to close the application(s) and reopen. Following this step, PADS Maker will automatically detect scan these locations for any changes in your PartQuest Dropbox or Direct Download location.
    PADS Maker Dropbox and Direct Download locations will be automatically detected by the PADS Maker Schematic Parts window/Library list. You do not need to add it manually to the library list.

PADS Maker Dropbox default location is Dropbox/Apps/PartQuest/PADS_Maker.
PADS Maker Direct Download location is a hard-coded location C:/Partquest/PADS_Maker.
If you select Direct Download for PartQuest parts, you will need to double-click on your downloaded *.pqz file to unencrypt them.