CAD and CAM Books

I must admit only reading the first few chapters, as all I am interested in is functional coverage. I will some day read the rest of the book (I hope).

Commenting on the parts that I did read so far - I found this book an excellent learning tool. I had to learn how to write functional coverage in e, and this book was very valuable in getting me started, both with basic concepts, as well as examples. The example involving the wood stove is excellent. Unlike the documentation available from (Cadence), which is highly fragmented, Andy Piziali did an excellent job providing examples of complete - start - to -finish solutions.

In his forward to Piziali's book, Harry Foster, of Jasper Design Automation, says that this is "the first book to introduce a useful taxonomy for coverage metric classification." I agree that "useful taxonomy" describes this book well. I think it would be hard to find a more clear and complete introduction to functional verification coverage concepts and methods.

As an added bonus, this book is a good read. Piziali has a passion for verification coverage and a passion for language. The result is prose that not only is clean and easy to follow, but that also infects you with the excitement Piziali feels for his subject.

First, this book is short for the price, it only weighs in at 135 pages, excluding a unnecessary BNF description of the "e" language, and the more useful definitions. Furthermore, the book wasn't typeset well, it has widow and orphan lines all over - while this probably won't bother most, I find it jarring to my reading.

I'm somewhat familiar with coverage analysis, but no expert. I think the book serves as a OK introduction to the subject, but I found it wanting in concrete suggestions. When should I choose one technique over another? What coverage methods uncover the most bugs? Can I expect to get 100% line coverage? How do I make expression coverage more valuable and reduce false negatives? I'd like statistics, more what-to-do when, and more coverage of recent techniques based on PSL/OVL assertions - currently limited to two pages.

To summarize, it lacks the detail I'd want to make it worth the price. If you desire an introduction to coverage, I think you are better off with a recent book on general verification tecniques.

In the field of functional verification, coverage has been traditionally seen as a luxury activity which is done if time permits (and we all know what that means !). In recent years, along with the exponential growth of design complexity, this situation has drastically changed. Coverage is now typically a mandatory part of the verification process. However, in most cases, it is still effectuated in an ad-hoc manner, since there is no agreed upon methodology in this field yet. Andy's book comes in time to fill this gap.

The book's content spans from the basics of functional verification and functional coverage up to state of the art topics such as coverage-driven verification and usage of Hybrid models to improve coverage fidelity. In between, Andy reviews the different types of coverage, namely functional, code, and assertion coverage.

There is no assumption of prior knowledge, and the concepts are very clearly articulated. Examples are mostly shown using the e language (Andy works for the late Verisity), but it is done in a generic manner which allows to implement the core ideas in any environment.

This book covers features of related tools extensively without talking about specific tools.

Before buying this book, it is a good idea to read the discussion between the author and others at http://verificationguild.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=185#185 if you are interested in using coverage measurement. There, none of the experts were able to address the following question:

Coverage tools are often used to set goals for simulation efforts. The flexible functional coverage allows such goals to be set too high or too low. Has any user made such mistakes? What can people do to get back on track quickly when the goals are too ambitious or too conservative?

This book also suggests using functional coverage for setting goals for simulation, but it also avoids the above question. The recent answers from some other authors are available:

Authors of http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/494/victor.html set the coverage goals conservatively and assure each coverage point got hit many times.

A.Adir, H.Azatchi, E.Bin, O.Peled, and K.Shoikhet of "A generic micro-architectural test plan approach for microprocessor verification" in Proceedings of the 42nd Design Automation Conference (paper 47.1 from www.dac.com) suggested setting functional coverage goals according to project budgets.

Peet James' book (ISBN: 1402076193) seems to recommend using functional coverage but not to use it for setting goals.

Andreas Meyer's book (ISBN: 0750676175) provides an option to avoid using coverage because it can be too much work to explain the coverage data.

After reading some of the above, it can be easier to decide how useful this book is.

Absolutely essential for anybody seeking to learn the fundamentals of Verilog PLI. Various usages of Verilog PLI including different types of library functions :access and utility routines as well as VPIs are extensively covered with numerous detailed examples. The reviewer found the book to be a well read and lucidly written.

I found the book very useful because of the lots of examples, informal presentation(helps beginners), seperate chapter on BFM, coverage for both PLI1.0 and PLI2.0 and exercise (Self-check) to measure progress.

I am of the opinion that this book would be a worthy investment for a quick start in hardware design.

Swapnajit, First congratulations on your book. This is a major progress in documenting and demistifying the PLI mechanism. The examples of your book are excelent starting points. I grade myself as a medium expert in PLI. So I am still waiting for a second, higher-class book to cover more advanced topics. One of them is multiple instances of a module containing a PLI call and hence multiple instances of the same C code. My problems started when data belonging to one instance interfered with data belonging to other instance. Actually I would like to see in your next book or revision some tips about this issue. In general some good PLI coding practices would be wellcomed. I also encountered race conditions in which the order of the PLI C routines calling influenced the behaviour, and hence not reliable. The second subject I liked very much in your book is the communication between verilog processes. The actual application I hoped to be able to put to work is a kind of "software -hardware coverification" (for poors). Actually I have a PLI that mimics the bus activity of a CPU and now I want it to run real C program. I would like that C program to run in a different environment from the simulator, and only on CPU-read and CPU-write to enable a handshake mechanism. Since I am not a TCP IP socket expert I dropped the effort after a couple of days, when I reached the notorious deadlock of both processes waiting for one another... I would also like to see in the next revision tips about debugging, and some NOT-TO-DOs. I encountered some problems when using parameters in verilog that are passed also to PLI's. I think you may add some words about this as well. All in all I enjoyed the book. Keep up ! Last but not least thank you for your answers to my e-mails regarding the PLI stuff. I also appreciate your activity in the comp.lang.verilog forum.

Save your money and buy the Stuart Sutherland book "The Verilog PLI Handbook" ISBN 0-7923-8489-X it's much better. I have both.

This is a very useful book for those who want to learn intricacies of Verilog PLI without spending hours on reading manuals. The best part of this book that I liked is its set of examples - almost all functions and their uses have been explained with an easy-to-understand example. Most of these examples are presented in their bare-bone structure so that users can customize them according to their needs. A more careful look at the examples would reveal that the author has subtly divided them into two categories - one for the beginners and the other for the more advanced users.

Overall, I will recommend this book to anybody who wants to learn Verilog PLI.

This book is a must for anybody who wants to learn ObjectARX. The CD-Rom has tons of great coding examples. The projects are really interesting to study from. My recommendation on learning ObjectARX is to buy & study the ObjectARX Primer & the Ransen's ObjectArx CD Course first, study this book next & you will be well on your way to become an ObjectARX expert.

This book teach you how to build a first level application for AutoCAD. You learn the basics: to develop your own custom entity, to register commands... But there is nothing about advanced features: deep cloning, COM features (OPM, Design Center...), relationships between objects...

While I agree with the previous words, I must add the following to their reviews: If you are not comfortable with C++, don't even look at this book. The first thing you will see is that rather than:

Private Sub Command1_Click() MsgBox "Hello World!" End Sub

you have instead two(!) pages of code to even register the Hello World application in the proper ObjectARX (class-based) method. Add to that the fact the the ObjectARX model uses a mind-boggling array of macros, includes, etc, and you will quickly feel out of your depth.

There are VERY good reasons to do ObjectARX programming, most of which have to do with the ability to add your own custom classes to the AutoCAD object model, and creating your own entity types from scratch. If you don't need to do that yet, go get a beginning VC++/MFC book and study that. Meantime, VBA is extremely fast for all but the most demanding applications, and is worth very careful study.

I would also add: AutoCAD has some of the BEST documentation in the world. If you have already downloaded the ObjectARX SDK (which I assume since you are perusing a book about it), don't overlook the excellent documentation in PDF format. Not many people know about it, but it is there if you look.

This is NOT a book for beginning C++ programmers. The author does warn of that in the beginning, and this reviewer believes it is worthwhile to stress again. The reader should be at least an intermediate programmer in C++. It is further recommended that the reader have a good understanding of Microsoft MFC as well. The author assumes the reader has these minimum competancies as he does not waste space trying to teach them.

Having said that, this reviewer started writing ObjectARX applications within the first 2-3 weeks of reading the book. The author provides sound basics and good examples. It covers many topics within the ObjectARX environment but does not go into great detail on any particular one. The book assumes that the reader will use the on-line reference to find out the nitty-gritty on a particular item. Admittedly, this reviewer found himself after the first month of programming relying primarily on the on-line reference provided with ObjectARX, rather than the book. Still, the book gets you pointed in the right direction. The biggest complaint this reviewer had, if he had to name one, is the index. It is quite lacking.

This is the book I was looking for. This book has given enough inputs for writing application. Full credits to Mr. Charls McAuley. Excellent example on drawing Windows coupled with DCL and then MFC support. Any one who is little comfortable with C++ and AutoCAD 2000, can very rapidly digest ObjectARX technology with this book. Go for it. Many thanks to Mr. McAuley for wonderful piece of work.

After I finished the book, I understood what residential architecture was truly about. A must read for a student of architecture. The book taught me the following: Architecture= The blending of Art, Engineering, and Construction with the responsibility of protecting the health, welfare and comfort of the public. With this premise, a residential architect designs a "work of architecture" by gracefully merging the Blend of ART/ENGINEERIN/CONSTRUCTION with public requirements to create a homogenious seamless solution that meets public need.

Covers all the basics of architecture in a logical manner. Great detail on specifying building materials. My only complaint is the chapter on drafting tools is aged and obsolete.

EXCELLENT. I'd have rate it 7 stars if it was also available in metric dimensions.

The workbook is useless without the text book. It was unclear when ordering that I had ordered a workbook which had no information.

Having spent the last hour trying to download and open this e-book makes it much easier to understand why traditional printing has lasted into the 21st century! I suggest you guys try harder. I'm looking for a refund here.

About a month ago, I bought the One Step at a Time series (3 books with the workbook) for AutoCAD 2007 in ebook format. The whole series cost me 30.24 - and I didn't have to wait (or pay) for shipping. Then I printed them all (in color) at work so I could reference them anytime I needed to.
These books are simply the best - simple explanations, step by step exercises, and an author who answered my questions when I got stumped on one of the exercises.
What a find - books that do what they claim to do for a reasonable price. Eat your heart out MegaBookPublishers; I'm going with the little guys and the electronic publishers from now on!

I bought the AutoCAD 2007: One Step at a Time series (including 3D and Workbook) and am very please with the product. I only had about a week to get up to speed with AutoCAD (I studied it in the mid-90s but haven't seen it since), and these books were very easy to follow and left me with a better-than-functional understanding of the software. I amazed myself with my final 3d drawing!
I recommend the series for anyone in a hurry to jump start their design career at a reasonable price. (I bought the eBooks and printed them.)

I've now been through both the beginning and 3D books of this series and am very happy with both. The approach is straightforward and easy to follow.
But to be honest, I've used other texts that were almost as easy to follow. What really made this one stand out was that, when I had a couple problems (I couldn't find the files and I missed a detail in one of the exercises), I contacted the publisher for help (once by email and once by phone). And I actually got to talk directly to the author who was a patient and easy to understand as his writing!
You can't get better service than that!

I purchased this book hoping to get two things: a refresher on the Inventor program, and a quick reference while using the software. I found that this book was decent in giving me a refresher, but it wasn't very handy as a quick reference.
Once I started using the software again, a lot of specific questions popped up. The Inventor Help is nearly useless, so I was really hoping for some clear step by step instructions. While these do exist in this book, the examples and pictures to support are not very clear.

Yes I fully support J. Heddinger writing in his review: "...now i need the advanced instructions...what about it cheng ?". It's the same story with each release: you can get an "Ïntroduction to..." or "Basics of..."! I think lot of typical users did not need an introduction to each release, what we need, in contrary, is a good "...release xx for professionals". Deep lay the flavours...

Inventor 9 is Autodesk's challenge to more advanced modelling packages like ProE and Ideas. Cheng reveals that Inventor 9 offers many of the features seen in those more expensive alternatives. You can use this book and its CD to cheaply learn parametric modelling. This is just a fancy way of saying that you can parametrise various dimensions of parts in your object. In doing so, you can gain greater flexibility in easily varying these values, possibly to optimise the design of a composite object using those parts.

Inventor gives 4 types of parameters - model, user, linked and embedded. The book details the differences. But the gist of the text is to rise above the low level machinations. Instead, you can grasp and use parameters naturally in your design. Like relating cells in a spreadsheet. Except that unlike a spreadsheet, the inherent graphical ability here leads you to comprehend far more.

i've been using inventor since 5.3.....this is by far the best instruction book i've seen....it's great and covers every bit of everything if your trying to learn it. finally...too bad autodesk doesn't include this with the package. now i need the advanced instructions...what about it cheng ?

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.

"Oh, I'm exhausted. I've been on this street a thousand times. It's never looked so strange. The faces...so cold. In the distance a child is crying...fatherless...a bastard child, perhaps. My back aches, my heart aches, but my eyes...my eyes are resilient! Thank God I put on my reading glasses and started my CAD of Microstrip Antennas for Wireless Applications!....To think, I wasn't going to take this out of the lab..but I knew deep down inside that the toll road of denial is a long and dangerous one. The price? My soul."

As I was sitting in my cage the other night, I felt a magnetic attraction to this book. I particularly enjoyed how the fields were interweaved throughout the text. Near fields, far fields, clover fields, corn fields. This one has it all!

As a designer of planar antennae I found this book to be of very little use. Designing anything more complex than a directly fed patch radiator with this book in hand, such as an EMC patch radiator or a slot-coupled one, amounts to:

1) getting very approximate numbers to say the least, running the little computer program which is provided with the book, or using the formulae from the latter,

2) patiently sliding substrate layers on top of each other while keeping a hopeful eye on the network analyser,

3) performing a lot of scalpel work; fine for GPS, a nightmare at X-band or above...

I have used decent models which have been published elsewhere in the technical litterature, for designing the aforementioned radiators, with good results. In fact Artech House, the original publisher do not even advertise this book any more!

The author truly has mastered my equations and displays practical application of them to real world situations. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down! Field calculations and microstrip design can sometimes be a little dry, but the author makes it not only interesting, but fun as well. I would like to see him branch out into solving world peace and time travel next, as he seems well equipped to tackle those subjects after this etraordinary work. I wish I could give 6 stars.

The workbook uses a scripted approach to exercise basic CATIA V5 functionality and is exactly what I was looking for. The material is presented in a clear logical manner. The many graphics and clear explanations greatly assisted me in learning CATIA V5.

Finally a Catia Course book written for the average person instead of the Catia V4 veteran. I found the course simple and easy to follow. It was complete with examples of common parts and followed a step by step course.

The sample chapters at the Schroff web site shows nice colorful graphics for this book. In reality, the book is a poor reproduction with only black & white graphics. As a result, some of the screen shots in the book are very hard to make out. For the price ..., I would have expected a much higher quality book. Otherwise, the content is good if you're a beginner with Catia V5.

This book has a been a great organization tool for the newer or even experienced CATIA user. The clear and consise explanation of the workbenches and their functions is a great reference tool.

The lessons build on each other and break down the sold modeling process into small easily understood pieces. This book has answered many, " i wonder what the thougth process was behind this function...", questions. This book will stay within arm reach of my CAD station!

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.