CAD and CAM Books

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.

There are plenty of AutoCad instructional books on the market, but what makes this different is its focus on the basics, and its use of 'mixed units' of measurement to illustrate drawing and editing tools for the application. It's designed for novice users of AutoCad 2008 and is perfect for self-teaching or classroom instruction: no previous CAD experience is needed and the 21 'workshops' which comprise the lesson plan are based on small projects, covering all first level commands. An excellent starting point for AutoCad learners.

This is a basic instruction book for anyone beginning Autocad. I had some background knowledge of Autocad from a class taken over ten years ago and had forgotten most of the commands. This book walks the reader through step-by-step for various commands and shows various ways to initiate the command (icon, drop down menu, command line) to make Autocad more user friendly to the reader's personal computer styles. I recommend this book for those in the civil engineering field. There are some steps that were not covered in this book that are probably considered intermediate drafting techniques, like inserting maps to scale.

This is more of an intermediate level in my opinion. I had difficulty with some parts of this because I didnot know a thing about Autocad when I first began using this.
Once you know a little, this is a master workbook. This is the very best.

Very good book; it's really a step by step instructor, and is deep in concepts and has lot of exercices that you get in Internet.

Thanks goodness for O'Reilly, and thank goodness for this title! O'Reilly's 'Nutshell' series really are the most valuable books on my shelf (I'm a programmer). I have at least 5 others in the Nutshell series, not counting the older ones since upgraded to 2nd or even 3rd editions. So when my dad upgraded his office to AutoCAD 2000, and I had to fiddle with his new machine, and 2000, I quickly discovered how rusty I was! (Haven't used it extensively since r12). This book really is the supreme AutoCAD reference for those who don't want to read 5 pages to get two sentences worth of information. Sick of those 2000 page paper(literally)weights? This one will comfortably tote in a briefcase, or laptop bag - without losing any of the meat within all those other, fatter books. Now my dad loves it as well! He stole my copy, and bought a couple more as gifts. It's worth every dime - and far, far cheaper than those giant tree-killer 'bibles'. (How apt! All those extra words!) Hopefully they'll print a 2nd edition soon, for Acad2002...

This AutoCAD book contains all of commands and the best practice method. Also it is a flawless desk reference about engineering design. To approach to the solutions are the only thing that keeps this book from being the best available for making design a person for all engineering areas. All novelties are explained by the author what are they originally from. As long as you have other autoCAD reference books or good notes from your past experience, this book is great if your looking for best one to learn all autoCAD titles to you.

This book was my textbook for a Design Graphics course at the University of Texas - Arlington. Although I have been using AutoCAD for nearly 8 years, I was still able to find very useful information on this new release.

This book covers the most basic line drawing and up to complicated three-dimesional extractions. Not only does it present the AutoCAD commands precisely, it gives examples on how to use a command and when certain commands are most effective. Also, a CD is included that contains about 15 sample drawings. These drawings later become the topic of discussion when presenting complicated ideas in the book.

This book does not contain information on menu editing, LISP-routines, or external referencing. If you are interested in those items, this is NOT the book you want. If you are looking to train new employees how to use AutoCAD from ground-level, this is perfect.

This is the first AutoCAD texture that have worked flawless with a computer of mine.

This book in version R14 Windows and related CD is easy to read, run and work with. It's thorough layout and clearity teach you how to make engineering drawings and in detail pinpoint how to make instructive drawings with a computer tool.

I achieved all the figures and there were many exercises that just wanted me to keep on going.

Finally, I can master the AutoCAD puzzle with the mouse and keyboard!

Ahh...Paul is the master of big thinking. I am by myself with a draftsman, using email. I only used 5% of the stuff, however it was great. The BEAST ADT shines, this is the Rolls polish, someday (when I die) I will put it all in place. :)

this is one case where "It was worth the wait!" Until now the only source i trusted for getting answers for how to deploy ADT3_3 was the Autodesk Newsgroups. What Paul has done here to collect his vast experience and knowledge of the product into a complete thought and then run it through the Autodesk gamut of approval is nothing short of tremendous.

Look -- let's admit it, ADT is a small BEAST. It can take months to implement some of these concepts fully into your firm. And if you think you will come to all the same conclusions Paul does on your own your crazy. I refer back to my brother who is in the music business "You have to know the rules before you can break them!" Paul knows the rules.

for lack of space i will comment only on content here . . .

i dove in this past weekend. i scanned 8 of the 13 chapters. (chapter 13 is available on the web site only). you don't have to read the book in order but i suspect to use it is as a guide you would need to follow it in order. So far i have found many good suggestions. and a few healthy disagreements too. it is really good reading!!! the same nice balance of technical assumptions and laymans terms that we have come to expect from Paul.

i foresee it becoming the guidebook for implementation as Autodesk Press intended for many offices. and for others such as mine it is an excellant balance and check to review current implementation. I also look forward to editing some of the included cd-rom content for documenting my own implementation, something i never seem to get to.

here's a couple specifics:

Pro's
page 41:
I agree with "include an OBJRELUPDATE/all statement in your Acad.lsp file."
Realizing that regenall does not regen adt objects was very helpful.

too many more to list.

Con's
page 47:
I don't agree with "Optimize for Speed check box in the Object Snap area . . . it is recommended that you not activate this feature"
I find little use for the extra snapping on the effected objects, and in a production environment; file sizes are large enough that performance would surely be sacrificed.

enjoy. cheers,

matthew

This book should be used in conjunction with the Mastering Autodesk ADT 2007 or Mastering Architecture 2008 books. This is more for the person that sets the standards. If you are like me, a pretty much one man team, then this makes your understanding of ADT a lot more comprehensive. It explains a lot more of the "why" than the "Mastering books" did. My picture of the project got a lot bigger frame as I was going thru this book. It is written in such a way that you can go from the beginning to the end, as usual. But, it is also written so that you can go & look up certain areas that you have questions about, go to that part of the book & get your answer without a loss of understanding because you took it out of sequence.

I would recommend this book to any user of ADT or Architecture from intermediate & up. I also would recommend it to any CAD managers or those that want to be CAD managers. If you want to get the most complete education of ADT or Architecture you can have, get both books, the one for this review and either Mastering AutoCAD Architecture 2008 or Mastering Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007, depending on which program you have. I would also recommend getting The Illustrated AutoCAD 2008 Quick Reference (Illustrated AutoCAD Quick Reference) or the year that matches the year of your program. It doesn't contain the ADT or Architecture commands but does a great job on the AutoCAD commnads & system variables.

This is an excellent companion to Mastering Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007 and in many cases picks up where MADD leaves off. If you are using MADD to get up & going with ADT and find yourelf thumbing the index thinking "There's got to be more detail", it is here. Detailed information and sound advice for figuring out and making sense of the whole Projects, Display, Styles and Objects systems is here.
We are a 2 seat high end residential firm. I have been using ACAD since R9 and ArchT as an architectural front end for 10 years. ADT2007 is my first go at ADT. It is definitely complex & multi-layered, but I believe that it will improve the quality & timeliness of our production. This book is an integral part of the process. It's worth it.

This book explains the basics of the networks and protocols used in industrial automation. It goes into detail about specific protocols, explaining their intended purpose, how they evolved, and what they're used for today. It explains the models that separate fieldbuses from control networks and where the lines blur. There is good discussion of field control vs distributed control. It explains how redundancy and failsafes come into play with each type of network.

I approached this book as an engineer who designs industrial products without any training in the purposes behind the various industrial communication systems. Users of industrial products often understand the relationships between the various standards intuitively but cannot explain it well to a product engineer with little manufacturing experience. This book clears it all up in under 150 pages of easy-to-follow text and diagrams.

Anyone who wants to take a couple hours to learn what's behind the apparent hodgepodge of communication standards used in industrial automation should read this book.

Dick Caro has a wealth of knowledge about automation networking--and it shows throughout this book. From his rendering of the history of industrial networks and fieldbuses to the technical review of the leading contenders, the book is a veritable encyclopedia on the subject. It has a permanent place on my reference shelf.
Gary Mintchell
Editor, Automation World