CAD and CAM Books

This book is quite helpfull but you have to work at getting the information out of it. Tinder had me until we hit mixed variable logic with K-mapping. That area needs work; too many diagrams and not enough explaination. I have to say though, this is a hard topic to teach to someone who has never seen this material before.

This book is frustrating. The preface states that all end-of-chapterproblems are bundled on the included CD. But, there are none on theCD. Also two "powerful tools" are supposed to be included on the CD. BOOZER is included but you are directed to go to the manufacturer's website. Tinder does a poor job of relating the information in a way useful to a beginner.

I am a beginner to the world of digital design. I thought that this book could have helped me by including the answers to the exercises that are included. (It does claim to have them on the CD that comes with it, but I have yet to find them) Of course, it is a new book and CD, so it may come soon in a later edition. The book is very thourough in its coverage of the topics, but for a total beginner, I could have used a book that was twice as big. I am the kind of person who needs a lot of explanation from point A to B in a mathematical process, without skipping any steps in between, or making too many assumptions. I also need to be reminded sometimes of when to use already learned concepts that apply in the learning of new ones. The explanations in this book, although in depth, I found sometimes made jumps that were hard to follow without hours of analysis. Other than that, I found a wealth of information that covered many topics. I can say that I now have an understanding of digital design that I find exciting, and that even though I didn't learn everything I would have liked to in the time I had (This book was used as the text in a digital design class by its author), I did learn alot.

I have a large library of AutoCAD 2000 manuals, but this is my most frequently used reference. The concepts are clearly and concisely explained and the "insiders tips" are very helpful. The examples clearly demonstrate the points being illustrated, and step-by-step instructions lead the reader through the examples in an accurate and straightforward manner. Excellent manual for anyone who is teaching themselves AutoCad "by the book"!

This book is full of mistakes. It would be very difficult for someone without CAD experience to complete the exercises because of the mistakes. If you can't complete the exercises, you can't learn the features of AutoCAD 2000. Don't expect an answer if you email them about this, either. I've been waiting 2 weeks so far.

if someone gave this book five stars, then we must be in a pretty sad state of affairs as far as cad ref manuals go. the index is loaded with entries, but they never seem to point in the right direction. when i do find the correct subtopic i'm looking for, i have to muddle through two paragraphs about why the tool or command exists and how it differs from acad14 before i get to the meat of what it is or how to use it.

i'll admit i never used the tutorials, but who really learns these programs by going through tedious, time-consuming and easily forgotten exercises? i would assume most professionals would rather have a reference guide that gives clear, concise answers to questions as they come up.

Every time I try to look something up in this book, it's not on the page the index says it's on. This is a real time waster. This book is called a "users guide" and if you can't locate information from the index, what good is it?

I used the release 17 version of this book a few years back, & found it quite good; useful tutorials, and explanation of good parametric modeling practice at the same time.

this book will get you going just as well as the begginer course that PTC offers. It can save you a lot of time and money. I don't believe it replaces the course for first time solid modelers, but if you are familiar with paremetric modeling on comperable programs you could probably get by with this book, and trying to model a part from scratch.

I bought this book thinking to improve my knowledge about VIZ, but that book is exacly the same 3D VIZ 3, with the same examples, etc.

I must admit that it took me two months to decide wether to buy this one or not and it was worth the wait. I am no newbie in 3D modeling (I use Maya) but as I am currently learning MAX with architecture modeling as my goal , I decided to see if this book teaches me new tricks - It does. This book is 99% architecture related and has very usefull info for both newbies AND pros alike. It is written in an easy to understand language and is chock full with tips and tricks. The text is very dense and lots and lots of screen captures - mostly small ones so the book is not a images-only book. The authors took considerable time to update the information with regard to the new features of VIZ2005.
Two missing chapters, though: NURBS and Patch modeling (the latter mentioned in a tiny chapter in the appendix)

There is also a much needed chapter on VIZ and PhotoShop and many more issue that are usually missing in MAX/VIZ books.

One BIG problem with this book: Your competition may benefit from it , too....

It's Ok, but not all I (novice) had hoped for. It takes a lot of time to get through: tutorials are like tedious stories, every step is written down in a full sentence. This way it takes pages to do things that, looking back, aren't really that complex. And even then not every thing you're doing is explained. Also, not every story is told to the end!
I'd like to see a more clear layout with theory and tutorials separated. If the chapters started out with bit of theory (with catchwords in the margin, also mentioning functions you don't need for the specific, follwing exercise)and the tutorials had shorter, clearer instructions (perhaps in a more steno or even graphic way) you would not only learn quicker; the book would also be more valuable as a reference book.
Though: In the end you will master Viz. The writers do pay attention to explaining you why Viz 'does' things the way it does, the way Viz 'thinks'. That will turn out to be usefull.

The book is great for a beginning user of Pro/MECHANICA. I found the book to be very helpful since I am a new user of Pro/MECHANICA, but also found it to be somewhat limited. I know that Pro/MECHANICA has a lot of integrated features, but only the basics are mentioned in this book. Also, the book only covers structure analysis, and does not cover thermal or motion analysis.

I have read the book and I found it the best for beginning. There are also many things which author have not include such as techniques for materials with anisotropy (assembly mechanica), or modal - shock - dynamic analysis. Beam Idealization with elements of masses and springs is not covered. The only analysis wich covers is static.

This book does a good job of explaining how to set up structure analyses and common pitfalls. It's clear and well-illustrated but not very broad. Advanced topics are covered in passing (springs and other idealizations) at most. But it's still a good book, and it doesn't take long to get up to speed with.

Making the switch over to V5 is a real pain, especially if you're a busy v4 engineer. Honestly, the best thing is to watch a few v5 video tutorials every day so you don't have to go thru the agony of a book. There's a beginner tutorial that I found helpful. Regardless, this book is task-based and spends a helpful bit of time talking about "making the transition." It will give a beginner an overview of the workbenches, so I'd say it's a good starting point. Here's that video tutorial link - CATIA V5 Video Tutorial CD ROM- Quickstart

Readers of this book will not be prepared to use Catia in a professional environment. Mr. Karam lacks practical knowledge of his subject, and relies on his co-author to write the majority of this work. Mr. Karam has been using a rival CAD program for over a decade, and is a Catia beginner himself. Those looking to learn Catia are better served elsewhere.

My company is currently working on a major project with the author's company. My department is transitioning over to CATIA V5 from a different design software and we are using this book as our training manual. The graphics are good.

This is a completely inappropriate book for anyone attempting to learn VBA with no prior VBA experience. There is no foundation laid for the examples, they include code that makes absolutely no sense because you haven't been introduced to that information yet. In chapter three the book has several examples of code to find the DXF codes for entities, but never tells you where to save it or how to run it. It's obvious that the author never thought to have someone with no VBA experience preview the book before publishing.

The book is not good for beginners in vba and it is not good for programming big project.

If you already have a working knowledge of VBA and want to integrate AutoCAD with MS Office tools, this is a great book. The author does a good job of making sense and has plenty of good examples. Most definately a worthwhile investment.

There are not many books out there that can describe VHDL as good as this book does. I used this book as an introduction to Hardware logic in my EE classes and was always happy with the contents of the chapter. Although, some help was provided for the questions at the end of each chapter. In the advanced FPGA classes, this book provided a good reference whenever I forgot the basics.

Given the large number of VHDL books out there, this book comes up signficantly short. Although the title clearly implies this is a VHDL book, actual VHDL is not introduced until Chapter 11; the first ten chapters explain various digital design concepts. This type of instruction is better left to other sources. While the explanation of VHDL modeling is clear enough, the order in which concepts are explained are puzzling at best, and maddening at worst. The terribly incomplete index is also frustrating- it's not possible to look up VHDL constructs or keywords for syntax! My advice would be to explore other VHDL books- this one is best left alone.

This is probably the worst technical book I have ever read. The author simply covers the commands of the software without any insight. There is a total lack of fluidity between the sections--each one seems to have been written by a different individual who doesn't care what was said before or will be covered later. Lots of boring repetition without purpose and very dry humor. If you still would like to buy one, BUY MINE.

This is by far-and-away the best book I have read on the subject of AutoCAD 3D. The book was a joy to work through from beginning to end, covering so many aspects (many of which other authors neglect to cover), all of which add up to produce a first class book and subsequently a well rounded course - everything you need to confidently tackle 3D CAD.

BUY IT.

Confusing, skimpy, and VERY hard to relate to what you see on your monitor. This gets one star only because that's the least this reviewing system will let me bestow. Dummies books are usually great-but not this thing. Not recommended.

One of the best "Books". It can be really useful if you work with ACAD 2000, programmer/engineer or just plain human being..... Worth buying...