CAD and CAM Books

Rather than repeat what other reviewers have already said about this book, I'll simply agree with them. This book teaches the basics of the e-language, but as with most other hardware design or hardware verification languages, the reader needs a fair amount of practice to become truly productive in 'e'.

Verification engineers with past experience in some sort of hardware verification language (eg. VERA, SystemC), can pickup 'e' in a reasonable timeframe (even though 'e' is aspect-oriented rather than object-oriented.) Even if you've never used an HVL, if you took a college course on C++/Java or some other object-oriented programming language, then you should still be able to learn 'e'.

Conversely, engineers who have neither OOP nor HVL (or transaction level modeling) experience -- someone who is pretty much a straight VHDL/Verilog coder -- will struggle with this subject-matter. (The book isn't a tutorial on OOP.)

This is an excellent book for intermediate and advanced users of "e"

The book very well organized in seven sections. The requirements of
Constrained random verification methodology is discussed first and how it applies to "e" language is presented in later sections.

The book in detail explains the concepts of generation , sequence generation , scoreboarding, functional coverage, messaging and finally evc (reusable verification methodology).

I strongly recommend this book to verification engineers and any one who wants to understand the concepts of constrained random verification and how it can be applied effectively using Specman "e" .
-N.Vydianathan

If you are heavy user for specman and used to read other available refences for specman, you would realize how useful/helpful it is to develop the verification methodology.

It touches the concepts from the fundamental to eRM methodology and customized macros w/ readable format and pictorials.

If you are a beginner, it a little overwhelm you though.
If you are above than intermidate level, then it definitely will help you to upgrade/enhance your knowledge as verification engineer.

It also was my case to improve my verification skill sets using the top-notched technologies that provided by this book.

I've been working on ASIC design and verification for years and find out we cannot handle recent complicating and balooning functionality by using traditional HDL based directed verification method.
At the time our new project decieded to use Specman, I was totally new to e langage and random verification methodogy.
But this book led me into new verification method and e language Specman smoothly.

This book also well describes sequence generation, which is the core concept of random verification, and e code reuse methodology, which is necessary for IP user.

I strongly recommend this book not only for entry level but also for intermidate level and skilled engineer to brush up e langage systematically.

This book is very detailed and focussing on a verification methodology, Test plan and describe about block level to System Level verification.
Also it is explaining the verification language 'e' -Specman in detail, saying that the book explains the details of the diff inbuilt methods,default structs , how to extend them for editing and their usage. Important matters are explained through pictorial views, like temporal expressions,events and standard methodologies for verification.

The book is very useful for digesting the concepts and thorough knowledge of language.

I am working with INTEL, as a verification engineer and found this book very useful for verification using Specman.

The setup of the book (order of chapters etc) is good as it teaches you to draw before going in to the more complicated functions of AutoCAD it is actually ideal for teaching AutoCAD. The Workbook could have featured a few more challenging exercises though or even an additional paperback filled only with drafting/drawing exercises.

As an abosolute beginner I would like to use this review as a forum to thank the author Cheryl R shrock for teaching me Autocad in the simplest way possible.
After being totally confused and fustrated by the woeful book 'Autocad 2004 for Dummies' you easily put me back on track with your exact step by step instructions and easily comprehended exercise tutorials.
I have just purchased your follow up book 'Advanced Autocad 2004' and look foward to a seamless progress.

This book is geared more for the Architect than the Engineer. I would like to see more of a mechanical engineering enviornment.

It is easy to use, great hands-on exercises, and excellent format. Using this book, I quickly learned a lot that pertained to what I needed.

I am teaching a beginning CAD course at a local University. The school has AutoCAD 2004, so I thought I would get a book that was straight forward in its approach. This book appears to be just that. Classes haven't started yet so I don't know how it will work, however going through the book to prepare a lesson plan it looks as if it will be fine. The support files were easy to download.

I removed this review as it wound up becoming two here. Feel free to remove this one.
Deadsam

i haven't seen a single book that sells the role flash mx should play in interface design and applications development as this one.

a definite must have for every designer/developer.

note: if you don't even read it... display it proudly on your shelf.

This is an interesting book covering many aspects of flash use today. There is a good sprinkling of

- Drawing API
- Advanced Actionscripting
- XML, PHP and server side technologies
- Sticky site concepts
- neat interactive video

The book is not big, and is by no means exhaustive .. .but it is fun.

At first I have to admit when I seen this title, I thought hmmmm a book about flash and designing, can't be too interesting, but after reading it and lookinig at the case studies, I quickly changed my mind. I have to say this is one amazing book. If your a flash designer, then this book is a must! It has case studies from preloaders (ah you say whats the big deal with that?) believe me, just the prloaders alone are worth the price of the book, then it goes into how to make a website that is not just appealing visually but some totally amazing coding to go with it, then it goes into projects like the totally insane family tree (I have yet to see anything coded or visually appealing as this project is, you have to see this one to believe it), then how to use xml to create an insane directory (or it can be used as a menu) then comes php (Ok this is where it starts to go into orbit, a full website thats easy to navigate and extremly eye appealing). You want stickiness? check out the growing plant case study. Unbelievable project! then also theres the t-shirt designing art program (which can be converted into an online art program for various purposes) and also the use of video (now this is not just a normal video case study) on the side it shows you what steps a karate guy is making top view in graphics as the karate guy does his moves (one great how to do karate tutorial for online) which can also be converted into other things as well. So there you have it a book jammed packed full of totally insane case studies. Some have surpassed anything Ive seen yet! I was thikning of giving this book a 4 star rating when I got about halfway through it, I have no choice but to give it a 5 star rating, it's just way to good not too.
If your a flash designer or just a flash programmer, you need this book!

Flash MX Application & Interface Design explores advanced flash navigations built with Flash MX. The first chapter of the book details everything you'd ever want or need to know about pre-loading. The last chapter contains some handy tips for dealing with Flash video. The meat of the book covers advanced navigations built with flash-sometimes so advanced it borders on useless. However, the value is not so much in what the authors built using Flash, but how they built it using actionscript.

Some authors from the book obviously assume their readers possess expert-level knowledge of OOP, classes, inheritance, and creating objects. As I waded through a couple of scripts, I felt as if the authors expected a certain level of familiarity with OOP from me. In addition, the examples in the book are quite complex. If a reader wishes to take the examples and use the lessons found within them, he or she will either need extraordinary persistence or advanced scripting skills.

Nevertheless, the book contains a wealth of code for the advanced scripter; enough to keep an enthusiastic reader busy for many weeks. The book also showcased the drawing API through several chapters and gives great coverage of creating text fields in Flash MX. I enjoyed the varied perspectives offered by the different authors, particularly the chapter related to using an XML document to populate an interface/navigation.

I'm not new to MicroStation; however I've never been formally trained either. Learning on the job with the aide of those around me helped me get up to speed fairly quickly since I was guided into using the commands that I immediately needed. But there has always been a thought in the back of my mind as to what I'm missing, so I purchased this book (along with several others), and I'm very happy that I did. It's a good reference guide and I've learned some things that I wasn't aware of and gained some better insight into the software. The only drawback is that being a book about a graphical software package there could be more screen shots to go along with the nice `meaty' descriptions.

as for my education dealling with microstation, i was self taught. the book, "harnessing microstation v8", what i have read so far was a great help to me, seeing that i only worked with microstation j. there newer things in v8 that the book shows. had the book for about 2 months now and i only got to read it for a week. the cadd manage has had it for the rest of the time and he been finding it very useful.

Looking to train our user base as part of our V8 migration, we conducted a quick study of the available published books on V8. Bentley's own supplied course material are fine as workbooks, but not much use otherwise and no doubt are gathering dust on many shelves the world over.

Having compared _Harnessing MicroStation_ to _Inside MicroStation_ (by Frank Conforti) we eventually decided to purchase this book in bulk for our students.

In spite of annoyances (like the awful typography and relative lack of reader-friendly illustrations) this is a book which is much more thorough in its treatment of Bentley's flagship new version, and will be of better long-term value to CAD professionals.

This book explains every commands in Microstation, has pictures of every dialog boxes there are and the exercises inside the CD will take you step by step through everything cover in the chapter. A very good book to learn at home by yourself. Recommend for AutoCAD or beginning user.

I am fairly familiar with AutoCAD but was pretty lost when it came to Microstation. I found this book very helpful to get me up to speed in Mictrostation. With the background I had in AutoCAD I quickly got through most of this book. I spent about 3 days in the book and feel pretty comfortable with the nuts and bolts of Microstation.

When they burned down the library at Alexandria, The excuse was if it is in the Koran than we already have it; if it is not, then we do not need it. What was true for them is true for us; if it is not in this book, then we do not need it. Or as Ed McMahon would say on the Johnny Carson Show "everything there is to know is in this book"

I will not give you a blow by blow description of all the features in this book, as it would weigh as much as the book. Let's say it covers everything you need to get off the ground or expand your existing knowledge. One usually overlooked feature that is well covered is [Connecting Using ODBC (with Microsoft Access)]. What I really want to do is tie this back to my Unix applications, as this is the only program I use that is not UNIX at this time. My best guess is that AutoCAD can not afford to keep their UNIX experts. That is no excuse for lack of information in this book. So five stars for coverage of almost everything and minus one for lack of UNIX information.

excellent text and explaination of the commands. this book takes you from the beginning all the way to plotting your finished dwgs. covers the bonus tools as well. 3d could be covered in more detail, yet it the section is still quite informative

I have found the book to be an excellent source of information. The only problem I have found is that the CD that comes with the book locks my computer when autorun is turned on, and will not let me access the CD.

The book itself is an amazing tool to have at ones side while learning this complex program. However, I see I'm not the only one who had problems with the CD. Most unfortunate as the files that do work are an excellent match with the scripted tutorials.

I am a very experienced Autocad user and I was amazed at the amount of timesaving information I was able to extract from this book. The writing is very well done with a good amount of "How & Why" information. New Riders has been my preferred choice for learning various software programs since the late 70's and early 80's and this book reflect the depth of their knowledge. I highly recommend this as the at the workstation book to buy. The CD that comes with the book is not ready for prime time. I found many errors with both the content and format of the disk. I even had problems installing and reading it with my computer, but the book more than make up for this flaw.

I have been using Autocad for a couple of years now. I am self taught from the usual superthick manuals. I was shocked to find out just how much I have using the program unproductively after reading this book. After only the 1st 2 chapters I had learned more than what I learned from the reference books in the last 2 years. (Or so it seems, anyways) I use it for architectural drafting and it is amazing what happens when Autocad is taught from that perspective just how much one can learn. I highly recommend this book for those who do architetural drafting.

I really liked this book. It was straight forward and to the point. The authors step by step approach was refreshing and easy to follow. The book uses alot of graphics that really help to clarify each task. The book was laid out in a logical manner and each phase of development of a set of house plans was explained in depth.

The first chapter dealt with the various methods of starting a new drawing and really helped me to get a handle on drawing setup. It also had a good explanation of scales, text and dimension sizes and the use of layers.

Chapter 2 was on how to create a simple floor plan from start to finish. It had a clear explanation on printing the floor plan at the end of the chapter. It also got into creating a custom template drawing for architectural work. I have since created a really nice template drawing of my own that sets up my border, text and dimension styles and a bunch of other things.

Chapter 3 and 4 dealt with creating a foundation plan, roof plan, building sections and the four exterior elevations. The explanations about using paperspace are the best I have ever read and helped to make this confusing concept finally clear to me.

Chapter 5 deals with using an architectural add on program that came on the CD with the book. This is a nifty little program and I ended up buying the full product and use it all the time.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a simple, in depth guide to using AutoCAD LT for architectural work.

I just finished going through this book. I am a new AutoCADLT 2000 user and I thought this would be a good way to get up to speed. I have been teaching myself ACLT and using the tutorials that come with ACLT. I was hoping that this book would fill in the blanks and give me a more rounded view of ACLT. In fact, it is a pretty narrow look at the product. I am not an Architect. I am currently reviewing plans from my Architect and another project, both in AC, and I thought it would be handy to be able to edit them.

There are things to like. Chapter two and parts of chapter 3 were OK. I didn't bother with Chapter Six, because it is only interesting if you use "Real Architect", and I don't. The good part about chapter two is that it gives you a good overview of a small subset of drawing commands and gives you a good exercise to practice the commands with. The good part about Chapter 3 is that it shows you some good technique to make sections. Once you have mastered the skills from the chapters, you can draw most basic Architecture.

The bad part is that most of that information could have been imparted in one smaller chapter. I felt like I learned a bit at the start, and then spent more time doing the lesson for the lessons sake rather than learning anything new.

The other major problem with this book is lack of depth. It spent far too much time on very simple commands like 'trim', and very little time talking about scale and printing. Most of the time it mentions scale it is "don't change it, we'll cover it later", and the later coverage was thin. Even with something that it did cover, like 'trim', it was a long drawn out process. It was pretty clear how it worked, but it took forever to for the book to mention how to use cutting edges, which seemed pretty obvious right from the start.

Another area that was frustrating was that for many commands it would tell you to either hit return on the command line or tell you which option to pick without explaining why or what the other options were useful for. It was too much like a cookbook, not enough like a tutorial.

Also, this was just a peeve, but it almost totally ignored the toolbar. Teaching myself AC meant that I knew the toolbar pretty well. It's good to tell the user what the command line keywords are, but it would be useful to mention the toolbar too.

One of the most obvious basic areas that it didn't cover was selection. The difference between draging from right to left vs. left to right, how to unselect something, etc. If I hadn't done the tutorials before hand, I would have been sunk.

This book was an odd mix of assumptions. On the one hand, it assumes that you know the interface fairly well, on the other hand it assumes that you don't know how to use trim and fillet, or at least that you need hours of drilling on the topic.

-mike

I am a new user of AutoCAD LT and have been struggling with it. I have been drafting for over 7 years but am just now making the jump to CAD. This book has been a great help to me. It was easy to follow and I was able to get a good handle on how to actually use AutoCAD LT to draw a set of plans. I found the book to be a great introduction for a new user like myself. Since reading the book, I have been able to complete a couple of jobs using AutoCAD LT and it's nice to get a return on the money and time I invested. I would recommend the book to anyone that wants a good simple intro into architectural drafting using CAD.

If you're new to cad and you're an architect or draftsperson this is a great book to get started with. The main thrust of the book is to help you put together a set of working drawings for a cottage home. Although the cottage and drawings are basic, the techniques learned can be applied to more complex subjects. Along the way, Padgett does an excellent job of teaching some relatively complicated cad subjects such as working w/ multi-scaled viewports in 'paper space'. The benefits of understanding and applying that useful drafting concept in the real world of deadlines and billable time, alone, made this book well worth the money I spent.

After one training session and about 10 months using Viz I bought this book and found it very useful.

Although it is 1100 pages of info, it is not blindingly full on, rather the author concentrates on making sure the methods and techniques are fully and clearly explained with plenty of screen shots and repeating previously explained information where needed. You won't find everything Viz does in this book but you will find more than enough to be able to create life like rendereings.

As much a [beginners] guide as it is an advanced user's salvation, this book sits on or near my workstation at all times.

Just make sure you order the correct version (for Viz 3 or 4)!

I have recently received this book as a gift. The content is GREAT but the format of the book LACKS A LOT in quality. That is, because there are over 1100 pages and because somebody had the unfortunate idea to place 16 color drawings on thick glossy paper in the middle, my long awaited book got ruined (read broke in two pieces, right in the middle). That was the WORST typographic job I have ever seen. All thanks to SYBEX Inc. who have edited this book. Hey guys, couldn't you make two volumes?

This book is the FANTASTIC. I'm an Architect and so appreciative that such a book exist. The material is meant for Architects (although applicable to many other 3D disciplines) and is extremely indepth without being tedious. The exercises are taken from historical projects recognized the world over which makes them interesting and fun. Mr. Omura had a game plan in writing this book and it pays off big time for the reader. By the time you've completed this book you'll have the skills and essential tools to create your own world's of expression. The author has a vast understanding of which tools to use to get the job done creativitly, efficiently and effectively. You'll also learn to incorporate industry standard tools outside of VIZ to assist you in creating your own libraries for future use. Is this last word in everything you'll ever need to know about VIZ? Absolutely Not. However, you'll be off to a great start with a BROAD SOLID FOUNDATION enabling you to build high and wide and creatively. ENJOY!

Have tried several other 3d viz books but this book is the best that I have read to date. Gets you up and running much faster than some of the more "fancy" interactive cd-rom types. Just the right sequence in the chapters for you to learn at a reasonable pace and understand the key concepts. If you need to learn this software than you will not go wrong with this book.

Omura's book is undoubtedly the best book I have read for 3D Studio VIZ! It is very complete with the most pictures, the best examples, tutorials, samples, and the clear explanations. Everything you need to know is in Mastering 3d Studio VIZ 3.

Joe once again did an outsdanding job of breaking things down and organizing them to make this a fantastic reference. Many readers don't pay attention to "Reference" in the title, which is exactly what this is. It's not a cook book or tutorial book, it's a VBA reference for AutoCAD. If you plan on writing VBA code for AutoCAD, you need this book.

By far the best AutoCAD VBA book around. I've purchased several books on this subject and this is the one that I turn to when I have a real problem. I'm a VBA hack and the examples in this book have been enough to help me solve every problem that I've had. I would recommend this book to anyone. My only problem with this book is that it hasn't been upgraded to the latest version of Acad.

An excellent and comprehesinve reference book for both non-programmer and programmer alike.

This book contains everything you need to know about AutoCAD VBA and then 10x more! I was looking for a simple guide to AutoCAD VBA syntax. This book isn't quite written for simple little utility type apps, but more for big-picture drawing automation. But given the uber-complicated nature of AutoCAD VBA, Sutphin did a GREAT job. I wish I had more time so I could follow him along for all 700 pages.

I wouldn't quite recommend it for newbies personally, but if you have VBA experience, you'll be okay.

Item is in good condition and I recommend buying from this seller.

I found this book to be extremely helpful in grasping the fundamentals of CAGD. The author's style is very informal and engaging (yes, despite the very 'techie' nature of the subject). The very liberally distributed illustrations give a good idea about 'whats-actually-going-on'? In all, a very highly recommended book, even if you are remotely interested in CAGD.

This book should be considered as a bible for people (including students, researchers, engineers and programmers) working in the CAGD area. The author placed a good balance between the discussion of theoretical (mathematical) and practical (implementation) issues of curves and surfaces design.

The fourth edition of this book was excellent. I'm sorry to say this one is not quite as good, as hard as that may be to believe. There are two problems: 1) a large number of errors, (worst of all) many of which are concetentrated in the chapter on b-splines. 2) in many places the book over-abstracts, and i feel that blossom form is overused here.

The first problem is quite bad: anyone who has learned the material before knows that superscript and subscript "comprehension" is required for this subject. Having a text that is full of errors in these (even if you have the errata, without which the text is near useless) erodes the ability to get the geometric intuition necessary to absorb the material.

The second problem is just that the abstractions used are sometimes more complex, and less intuitive, than the orginal form/construct/method being described. I use the blossom notation as an example: it is very useful in showing the relation between bezier and b-spline curves, but it is hardly touched on for that, despite being used constantly throughout the book. Another example: the decription of knot vectors is abstracted nearly beyond utility.

The fourth edition had almost *no* errors in it. It was very, very good. I hope there is a 6th edition that goes where this one should have!

I wish that this book had been available when I was teaching AutoCad at the Community College.

Clear, concise and coherent! Gave me everything I expected. I wish they had another book in the series to expand the 3D topics.

This is an excellent book for someone new to this field.
This book makes learning Autocad so much easier to learn
then any other book I've seen. I would recommend this book
to anyone who would like to be more advanced in Autocad.

You really shouldn't buy this one unless you also buy or have access to the beginning work book because some of the exercises call for you to use work done in the previous book. OK but not great and not as easy to follow as the first.