CAD and CAM Books

In my view this book contains very interesting and practical topic about CAD/CAM/CAE in various area.

Interesting Contex

Interesting Contex

I am really impressed by the lucid style of this book. All commands have been explained in detail and with exercises.
Remember to complete all practice questions at the end of each chapter.
Great stuff overall !!!

The author of this text should be congratulated. He tackles a difficult (and scary) subject and makes it seem easy. And he does it with a sense of humor.
Five stars and my thanks for helping me master what I'd always been afraid to try!

With a book as technical as this, it's hard to know who my potential review readers will be. Nevertheless, I will give a very CONCRETE and ACCESSIBLE review. Also you should bear in mind this: the book does have some concrete and accessible aspects before getting into complex issues; moreover -- and maybe this is the most important of all: the simpler, concrete and accessible aspects of this book DO HAVE UTILITY. I'll give a personal example of the utility of the book's simpler material at the end of my review. But now let's proceed in a nice logical order...

The book deals with "combinatorial optimization" problems. These are problems where there are (1) a gigantic number of discrete configurations that are possible, (2) a way of scoring how desirous a configuration is, and (3) ways to change the configuration from the present one. Examples include the scheduling problem of how to assign 20 workers to one job apiece for 20 jobs (with different worker/job pairings having different costs); and, of course, the famous traveling salesman problem -- requiring precisely one visit to each of N cities and a return to the first.

The most easily understood algorithm to solve combinatorial optimization is BLIND RANDOM SEARCH (BRS): generate a random configuration, score it, repeat (always keeping the best score yet encountered and its corresponding configuration saved in memory). You can have stop criteria as you wish -- including an OR'd pair (which I find to be itself a great improvement) -- such as UNTIL (a) score is X good or better OR (b) you've generated N random configurations.

BRS performs relatively poorly. A HUGE improvement is an algorithm called "Iterative Improvement" (II). This algorithm is covered on pages 6 thru 8 of the book. The idea is to take a BRS configuration then do some modest moves around that configuration -- scoring and repeating until you had k failures to improve. The best obtained is that one BRS "point". Generate a new BRS point and compare to the old as usual, but now the II loop probably substantially improved that old BRS score to which you are comparing.

Both BRS and II involve only "downhill" moves. Only a lower score and its companion configuration are kept and a new configuration never becomes the current one if its score is worse. The danger is "getting stuck" in a local minimum as opposed to the global minimum (truly best score). To avoid this danger there is the "probabilistic hill-climbing" algorithm of Metropolis. An improved configuration (one with a better score) still becomes the next current configuration, but you have some probability of taking the next current configuration as being the current contendor even if this contendor configuration has a worse score. The probability is related to the score and a parameter that might be thought of as temperature.

From the probabilistic hill-climbing algorithm of Metropolis, all you need to get to an annealing algorithm is a schedule for appropriately reducing the "temperature" parameter (which controls up-hill acceptance probability) in successive steps. The analogy is freezing a liquid to get its perfectly crystalline line-up of atoms, free of defects. Go too fast and you may get a glass rather than a crystal.

The book's chief aim is how to recommend IN GENERAL, without recourse to your specific problem, a schedule for the "temperature" changes. If this be your aim in considering the book, well it goes without saying you need not consider further: here's your book.

But what about the less technical reader? First of all, the book does gently introduce you to combinatorial optimization, blind random search, Metropolis and annealing. Second, the few pages on Iterative Improvement are EMINENTLY USEFUL in a PRACTICAL sense -- and are a good simple alternative to annealing (my example will be at the end). Third is that the book includes several ancillary extras.

The ancillary extras:

· tutorial on all of matrix mathematics
· tutorial on Markov Chains
· material on probability and conditional probability
· tutorial on Statistics -- esp. w.r.t. the Normal distribution and Central Limit Thm

I'm not saying that the ancillary extras are the best there is for a novice level reader, but most folks would not know of the existence of this material in a book called "The Annealing Algorithm".

The final bit of ancillary material is Pascal computer code for all the algorithms in the book and a complete program for doing the whole annealing bit on the electronic chip placement combinatorial problem.

MY EXAMPLE OF UTILITY OF ITERATIVE IMPROVEMENT ALGORITHM:

My problem is not combinatorial optimization, but can still use the ideas of iterative improvement since I am solving a deterministic problem (one without any random element) using Monte Carlo methods (using random numbers). My problem: I have the coordinates of the midpoint of a line segment; the line segment's length is also known and is roughly one-fourth the diameter of a circle; the line segment lies the annular area between this circle and a circle with a radius half-a-line-segment bigger radius than that of the original circle; lastly, given the rotation angle of my line segment, I ask this: what are the coordinates (x,y) of the intersection of the line segment and the original circle? (I took steps to check that YES, there was an intersection.) Solving the problem analytically didn't work. (Or at least, I couldn't do it.) I had used a BRS Monte Carlo approach. Then, re-reading this book, it occurred to me to use the book's algorithm (Iterative Improvement) on pages 6-8 (Pascal code page 8). I got a big improvement in lowering the error. Obviously, I had to delete details in this review (like how I even know error in my problem, and if I do know it, why can't I fix it exactly -- hint: circle is the locus of all points equidistant from a given point), but the POINT FOR YOU is that I attained a great improvement in my problem just by using the book's explicit algorithm (Pascal code) for Iterative Improvement.

Finally, the book is nice to read -- both very easy-on-the-eyes typography (unusual for a "math" book) and a good flow to the authors' writing.

The Annealing Algorithm is part of The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, concentrating on VLSI, Computer Architecture And Digital Signal Processing. The Consulting Editor, Jonathan Allen, has put together a concise, academic publication that introduces the conceptually simple procedures of simulated mathematical annealing and mathematical optimization. Research for the book was carried out at the Thomas J Watson Research Center of the IBM Corporation in Yorktown Heights, NY. Chapters include A Preview of The Annealing Algorithm, Preliminaries from Matrix Theory, (Markov) Chains, Chain Statistics, Annealing Chains, Samples from Normal Distributions, Score Densities, The Control Parameter, Finite-Time Behavior of the Annealing Algorithm, The Structure of the State Space, and (Pascal) Implementation Aspects. References and an Index are included. Mathematicians and computer science professionals seeking to learn about the conception of annealing as a combinatorial optimization tool, will find this publication interesting and will appreciate its use as a basis for further research.

this book is the best what i read about the architectural programming, I take a few informations and I use it in my projects.

thanks

And I mean "enthusiastically" very pragmatically. This book is a refreshing addition to my resource collection because it opens up alternative methods to approach programming. I come to this stage of the process with much more confidence and resolve because I have this great book to consult If I should get stuck somewhere.

If you are a person that is seeking to become powerfully informed about this stage of designing, or if you are a person seeking to supplement some additional points of view about programming, this book would serve you extremely well.

This really is a Whole Book of Answers

A lot of people use this book to answer questions. I found the book more useful to ask the questions that I would not have asked. Being aware of the functionality ahead of time made me look like I knew what I was doing and was able to complete a building evacuation plan in just 20 hours. I am sure a seasoned professional could do it faster. Yet it served my needs and made me a hero.
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Now at 2006 the book is more of a part of history as the product has changed drastically in where and how the tools are used. Yet the concepts and purpose stay the same. My suggestion for the current time is AutoCAD 2006 A Problem-Solving Approach

We can get the answer to any problem in just a few minutes. The answers are all there for every question we've asked. The answers are simple and easy to understand and impliment. A real time saver.

I am self studying Autocad at my work to be able to modify some existing Drawings. Two weeks ago I knew nothing about Autocad. As a student I always prefer a book that is intuitive enough to get the experience without having to ask a million questions about what the book is trying to achieve. This book has many full sized drawings, and step by step examples. I have downloaded the excercise drawings from their web site, and the examples are exceptional. This is a full course in autocad and if I were an instructor this is The BOOK I would use. But then again I dont need the instructor... I bought It.

I have learned more AutoCAD from this book, than from numerous other AutoCAD books, and local courses, combined! James Leach's well organized, straight forward approach to all aspects of AutoCAD, makes it possible (in fact enjoyable) to become a proficient CAD practicioner, on a topic by topic, self paced basis. After completing the 22 step WIREFRAME MODELING tutorial in Chapter 37 (complete with detailed step by step instructions), one can immediately re-apply this proceedure to their own "select" 3-D illustrations! This text is an indispensable learning tool and reference source.

no substitute for your architectural consultant by your side but extremely informative and helpful.

It was a wonderful little book to assist you in every detail. If you didn't know something, or weren't quite familiar with it, you just looked it up in this book, and there it was plain and simple. It is short and to the point, so you don't get more confused. I am not that smart at computers, but it even helped me - alot! It is a great book!

I had purchesed the 2002 seris for work and found the books to be the best step-by-step text on AutoCAD had had found to date. When my company updated to 2004, I checked to see if Mr. Metz had writen a new seris for latest version. I was elated when I saw that he had. This new seris is as easy to use as the original.

These books are the most user friendly I have ever used. Weather you are a novice or seasoned AutoCAD user, these books should be on your shelf at work or home.

If there could be a higher rating then 5 stars, this AutoCAD seris would get my vote.

I've used the previous edition and am now using the new edition of these books for my high school technology classes and really like them. In place of lectures, I let the students work through the books at their own pace. These books are so well written with easy to follow instructions that my students learn the AutoCAD program very quickly. The best part is that after the students have completed the exercises in the books, I can assign them any drawing and they can do it.

I really recommend these books to any instructor who teaches an introductory course in AutoCAD or for any individual who wants to learn AutoCAD on their own.

I had purchesed the 2002 seris for work and found the books to be the best step-by-step text on AutoCAD had had found to date. When my company updated to 2004, I checked to see if Mr. Metz had writen a new seris for the latest version. I was elated when I saw that he had. This new seris is as easy to use as the original.

These books are the most user friendly I have ever used. Weather you are a novice or seasoned AutoCAD user, these books should be on your shelf at work or home.

If there could be a higher rating then 5 stars, this AutoCAD seris would get my vote.

I've used the previous edition and am now using the new edition of these books for my high school technology classes and really like them. In place of lectures, I let the students work through the books at their own pace. These books are so well written with easy to follow instructions that my students learn the AutoCAD program very quickly. The best part is that after the students have completed the exercises in the books, I can assign them any drawing and they can do it.

I really recommend these books to any instructor who teaches an introductory course in AutoCAD or for any individual who wants to learn AutoCAD on their own.

I had purchesed the 2002 seris for work and found the books to be the best step-by-step text on AutoCAD had had found to date. When my company updated to 2004, I checked to see if Mr. Metz had writen a new seris for the latest version. I was elated when I saw that he had. This new seris is as easy to use as the original.

These books are the most user friendly I have ever used. Weather you are a novice or seasoned AutoCAD user, these books should be on your shelf at work or home.

If there could be a higher rating then 5 stars, this AutoCAD seris would get my vote.

I've used the previous edition and am now using the new edition of these books for my high school technology classes and really like them. In place of lectures, I let the students work through the books at their own pace. These books are so well written with easy to follow instructions that my students learn the AutoCAD program very quickly. The best part is that after the students have completed the exercises in the books, I can assign them any drawing and they can do it.

I really recommend these books to any instructor who teaches an introductory course in AutoCAD or for any individual who wants to learn AutoCAD on their own.