AutoCAD Books

Disappointment. This is a book hard to understand for beginners and almost useless for profesional AutoLISP programmers. What I was lookig for a some exapmples and descriptions of the basic functions to get access complexity entities and instead, found magazine-like article and programs.The rest of the programs except matrix I found very common and very familiar. DCL almost did not tuched and did not explained. However this book still can be usable and at some point helpfull.

It will help to have some knowledge of AutoLISP before reading this book. It has excellent examples of good programming technique. Some of the programs are difficult to follow so it would be helpful to use the VLISP editor to step through the code. The programming examples have something for everyone. This is an excellent book to have in your library.

This book can be difficult for beginners but it has a wealth of programming examples. It helps to have the VLISP editor in AutoCAD 14 and above. This allows a person to step through the code one line at a time. I do recommend this book for beginners and intermediates. Just realize that you are going to have to sit down and really study the code. Bill has the ability to combine several ideas in one line of code. These examples show the best way to approach and code a program.

This book is probably a lot better for somewhat already familiar with Autolisp. The book is written in a "learn by example" style. The examples shown are also explained. This is best used as a cookbook for Autolisp to take and edit the code given to suite your needs. Not suited for a reference as much as for the immediate need.

Don't waste your money if you want to actually write a LISP program with a dialog box that is not listed in this book....it ONLY covers the few (already in ACAD) dialog boxes. There are TONS of information not listed in this book for DCL's and the LISP interface to go with them. I am very disappointed. I have been writing LISP programs for years and was hoping this book would help me take my programs to the next level (dialog boxes), I was wrong. If you want to play with your menu's and draw a box using LISP, this is the book for you.

Searching some good text on the customizing of AutoCAD was always like touching a tip of the mountain. When I came across the book by Prof. Sham Tickoo I was thinking that it would be also have same programmes with errors but it was my myth for all customizing books. I really had a good time using this book, as I am able to created and run all the programs that are given in this book. This is the reason I have recommended this book to my colleagues and fellow students. Good job Prof. Tickoo.

One of the reason why to bank on this book is that the approach makes learning customizing of AutoCAD easy. Others add-ons like, free technical support, chapter detailing how to create your own menus and toolbars, examples, tips and notes, and many more. I cannot see this much in any other customizing book. As a learner I recommend this book to those who want to learn customizing of AutoCAD.

As an AutoCAD instructor in a community college, I was searching for books on AutoCAD that explains the fundamentals of customizing AutoCAD. I read the book by Sham Tickoo and found it very helpful. Author has explained all the methods that can be used to customize AutoCAD. I am using this book in my class and until now found no difficulty in teaching through this book. This book is one of the rare books that explain how to create solid models using VBA. I strongly recommend this book to all the students.

The book is well written, has tons of code snippets and provides a template so you can use the Express version of Visual Studio to work with AutoCad references.

Met the author at AU, liked his teaching style and realized he is one of the people that actually knows his subject.

Never made the .Net upgrade from VB6.0 and as Autocad enters the 64 bit enviroment, realize it is the best programming enviroment to work with Autocad. This book specialises with the intricies of effectively programming AutoCad.

I'm a .net programmer with no autoCad experience. I was recently assigned a project that required autoCad customization with a future of being web-based.

I purchased this book hoping that it would give me the staples needed to understanding how .net works in conjunction with .net. Since purchasing this book, it's done that and more.

The author, Jerry Winters, does a great job of incorporating all the essential basics and more. He clearly explains how to set up .net so that it can communicate and have access to the api .net libraries for autoCad. He also provides a template that ... when installed, makes creating new projects a breeze.

I've been able to learn and now understand basic concepts such as how to call my .net sub from autoCad and how to create an interface that will allow the user to interact with the application.

I've also been able to create polylines and blocks with code. Jerry's book comes with a snippet for each segment he features in his book which allowed me to go through the book at a much faster pace and step through the code (debug mode) which really helped me to understand what was really going on. I've also been able to really use several of the snippets in my current project.

This book truly is a useful tool and I would recommend it to anyone.

R Proctor

This author has written several of the VBA books for AutoCAD and they are excellent. He also has done an excellent job presenting at AU. Where my issue is...is with this author's customer service. I ordered this same text from his VBCAD website and I am still awaiting the delivery of this said text after six weeks of waiting. If you don't mind the long wait periods, then this guy is for you, but if you need the text in a hurry, it appears you will be out of luck. Have a look at the BBB for reference.

If you're looking for truly useful information on customizing AutoCAD with VB.NET, this book is the only place to go.

The solid, clearly written example code shows you how to interface with the user, the AutoCAD database, and the VB.NET gui.

This book has a prominent place on my desk.

I thought I knew Photoshop but I was wrong. I borrowed this book from the library but it was so good I decided to buy it.

First of all, if your life involves CAD and Photoshop, you should probably buy this book: It's very useful. Part of the reason it's useful is because there are not a lot books on this subject.

One of the greatest features about this book is its greatest flaw: the enclosed LISP program that turns AutoCad layers into Photoshop layers. What promise that has! It works great with the tiny 8.5 x11 drawings on the enclosed disc. But when you try to use that with a real drawing, say in 36" by 24" format, the drawing crashes.

I am very very pleased with this book. It is exactly what I have been looking for. I first purchased a DVD by the same author called *Photoshop for Architects* which I felt was so well done that I decided to buy the book. Having both is a real asset for they work in unison. Buying the book and the DVD, in my opinion, is a necessity. Each stands alone but they compliment each other. The DVD provides comprehensive coverage without going into every small detail. The book parallels the same information on the DVD but goes into greater detail. I am Architecturally educated but with limited computer experience and I have only recently purchased a first ADOBE product which is ADOBE CS. I imagine this book would be an excellent tool for anyone new to PS no matter what the intended use of PS will eventually be. The book starts with some general, but relevant, tech info without scientific overload. It step by step moves one through a real project from beginning to end so you learn most of the tools, how to set things up, various ways of accomplishing the same things and what to do in finishing out a project. I consider the presentation style to be superb for learning.

I am currently working my way through a real project and learning a lot which has not easily come together for me, in total, when reading other books which explain how to do this or that little thing but seem unrelated, in a comprehensive way, to a total project of substance. Working from and by referencing back to the CD that comes with the book and the separately available DVD, I feel that I have more quickly learned and also taken an interest in certain important basics. I have learned many tools very quickly, discovered alternate ways of doing things (plus reason why) which causes me to realize the value of investigating multiple PS capabilities, reasons for things needing to be done in specific ways and the limitations of doing things in cetain ways etc. I like the fact that I can use the book and DVD to step through a real project from beginning to completion.

This book and DVD is the best and most enjoyable learning tool I have found for learning PS and I have looked at many and purchased all from Adobe that relate to each part of Adobe CS. What this author offers is exactly what we have been looking for and I am hoping he will be creating similar documents for Adobe Illustrator and other Adobe products (for Architects) as our interest and abilities develop. If anything better exist I sure would like to know what it is.

It shouldn't be hard to find a better text than this one for an AutoCAD course or for self-study. Though this "Exercise Workbook" is supposedly for "Beginning AutoCAD 2007," the illustrations and portions of the instructions correspond to the 2006 edition of AutoCAD. This error is likely to be off-putting for the absolute AutoCAD neophytes to whom this workbook is addressed.

Furthermore--though the publisher does clearly state the fact--the included edition of AutoCAD 2007 - while it is the complete software (and not a "light" version) - nevertheless inconveniently "times out" in about a month... probably not enough time to work through the entire book at a sane and profitable pace.

While working with the ACTUAL software should be a plus in learning, its inclusion here may actually work against the learner.

Either the timeout on the included software were better extended to full-semester length (say 4-5 months) or an untimed, stripped down Learner's ELEMENTS of AutoCAD should have been produced to go with its matching workbook (which would not be THIS text).

The text and fonts are large enough for easy reading. Screens are reproduced clearly enough. Nevertheless, the whole production has a rather rough-and-ready, "cheesy feel" about it.

In other words, the "production values" are not high. Though this workbook is not expensive (and certainly not at Amazon!), its perhaps consequent crudeness relative to more produced or crafted (and more expensive?) texts, may defeat the virtue of being easily come by.

Easy come... not necessarily easy- (and definitely not long-) going. This workbook gives the impression that its author is merely riding the wave of successive editions of the software... merely retitling, perhaps adding new installation instructions - but not much more tracking than that - to keep consistent with changes in the software (which didn't even happen on this go-round!).

Apart from the software timeout issue, the pedagogy itself seems sound and confident with information presented in coherent small chunks. The author actually seems to let herself down with this somewhat tired 2006 redux of (one is led to expect without actually doing the examination) a 2005 redux of....

For anyone looking to learn the architecture program AutoCAD, this workbook is ideal. It instills a challenge yet manageable tenacity for every beginner. As a post-novice experience, Shrock's Workbook for Advanced AutoCAD is a meticulous step. 5 stars way, way up!

This book was sent to several engineers at the magazine. The author provides a good starting point for someone with a high school education. You will have to get a more advanced text to teach yourself the finer points but this would be the place to start. The fonts used are easy to read.

I did not try the disk so I won't comment. Having the disk is an excellent idea. Two discs with a 30-day trial for AutoCAD and a simple step-by-step manual provides ample tools for self-study.

The only reason why I did not give a 5 was because the text won't provide the more advanced techniques you will need to actually use AutoCAD on the job.

If this review helped, please vote.

Thanks

I ordered this book for a class. I was greatly impressed when I got it before the estimated shipping date. Thank you for being prompt with shipping.

asked for 2 day shipping and ended up getting 2 week shipping....other than that the book was in excellent condition

This is without a doubt my favorite book ever! I had no direction in life until I picked this book up and read it. Lynn Allen has touched my heart in a way I have never experienced before. I laughed, I cried, I even read it twice! I hope to one day meet Lynn Allen.

I was disappointed in this book because I expected more from a Cadence Magazine author. This book is probably great for someone just starting out in AutoCAD, but for someone who's done AutoCAD since R10, I can't find a thing I don't already know within these pages.

Remember you can only load the AutoCAD 2007 trial software for "one" thirty day period! If you have used it for a previous workbook you cannot reload the software.

this is one of, if not the best tutorial exercise workbooks on the market. You never have to crack open a technical text book to become familiar with Autocad and the author is very intuitive to teaching, without complicating it. A great basics references book as well.

Harnessing MicroStation/J is an adequate learning tool for beginners, but suffers from a lack of advanced topics. Several high level features are not even mentioned, ie. b-spline curves and surfaces and plot tables. The index is very weak. The few entries that are there, use obscure program names for features, instead of common subject names.

This won't replace the User or Reference Guide for MicroStation/J, you will want to keep them at hand. It does give a good second look at the basic concepts in MicroStation.

I am a Vocational Professor at Amarillo College in the Computer Assisted Design department. I have used different editions of this text for years to teach the MicroStation courses in our department. He covers basics thoroughly and provides excellent exercises using practical working drawings. My advanced course includes customization and 3D topics, all of which are included in this text. I recommend it highly.

I am a novice, self-taught autocad user. This book bridged the gap between me, a mechanical engineer, and my autocad drafters. After completing each chapter, including the exercises, I am now a fully capable and independent drafter. The mechanical engineer version is perfectly tailored to everyday designs for the M.E. I highly recommend this book for those new to autocad and for those who want to greatly improve their autocad efficiency.

The book does a good job showing you how to use AutoCad 2000 in a mechanical environment. However the book did not deal with the menu and commands found in AutoCad Mechanical 2000 that I will be using to do mechanical drafting.