Computer Aided Manufacturing Books

I highly recommend this book along with Matt's "SolidWorks 2007 Bible" for those wanting to get the most out of SolidWorks. I am very impressed with the content and layout of this book. Very easy to read and the color illustrations are perfect for understanding the material. Matt's writing is clear and concise. When I first heard that this book was being written, I eagerly awaited its release. Now that I have gone through the book, it has far exceeded my expectations. Well done.

This book is not as good as the author's "bible" in that this one does not have as many step by step tutorials. This one covers Solidworks 2008 and 2007 mostly. I was impressed with the author's bible book so I ordered this one too. If he added more tutorials instead of writing mostly theory and details of Surfacing it would be easier too learn. The print quality of the book with colored images is very good. It did not come with a cd of tutorial files and the book in pdf format. You are told to visit website for tutorial files. So I recommend the book but it is not for beginners.

I believe this to be the best SolidWorks book for advanced part modeling currently available on the market. This is a good and informative book aimed at the intermediate/expert SolidWorks user.

A good understanding of SolidWorks is required to get the most from this book.

The book covers all the advanced features available in SolidWorks in detail and where it can it tells you where you would use a particular feature.

The title is self explanatory. This book is primarily aimed at people that do consumer product design where appearance and smooth surfaces are required.

The only reason I gave this book 4 stars is because I believe there is always room to make things better. That said, this is my best SolidWorks book yet.

The book is absolutely not for the beginner or the intermediate user. It should say Experts ONLY! And even then? I've been using SolidWorks for approximately 15 months, and got very frustrated trying to understand the book.

It does have many items on surfacing, mostly theory, but does not provide many practical tutorials or detail instructions. It reminds me of a person jumping off a cliff who thinks they can fly. There is no CD in the book with models to back engineer, if you can not follow the text. The book does not cut the mustard and the writing style is poor. I think I need a VAR class?

This is my personal observation and initial experience with the entire book and the software. The comments posted here have nothing to do with how the authors' decision to present his work. I do not attempt to compare one software to another. It is none of my business to ask why one software calls the title block as REFERENCE and the other calls the title block as "SHEET". I am sure your college professor will have a better answer to your question.

The book is a well organized extension of the Bentley's user help file for its "2-D design and drafting." And the authors have well industrial and academic experience.

The included CD in the back of the book (claimed on p. xxi) has material of chapter 1 thru 13 and "17?" (there was no chapter 17 in the textbook! - see p.xvii). Furthermore, the CD presents very meticulous step-by-step hands-on exercises in chapter 1 to 13. And as soon as it gets to 3-D solid modeling (the non-existence chapter 17 in the CD), all you get is some drawings with dimensions. No step-by-step on how to do it! What a waste for a 30 year experienced professor, who could not show how to construct a true 3-D PARAMETRIC solid modeling technique. Boolean is not a true parametric design.

If you are doing 3-D design right now, then turn to page 121 and enjoy a good laugh at the drawing of the complete bicycle assembly design with some 2-D circles and linear lines (notice that we 3D people did hand over the creation of 2-D views to the 3-D parametric drafting with associative dimensioning software more than 10 years ago!)

For 3-D Boolean's design, you will not get much out of this book. Other authors of Microstation V8 such as Andrew L. Anderson (Microstation V8: An introduction to Computer-Aided Design, 2002) would have done the same thing. They failed to recognized the true potential of 3-D parametric technology in Mechanical design. All the presentations are based on the 3-D primitives. Who can proudly claim that a helical spring can be created with 3-D primitives?

Other needed minor improvements such as on page 12 figure 1-15 the authors want you to access the task Navigation/drawing/linear. And for new users, you will get an impression that the task navigation menu is located on the left of the screen. However, that is not the case. The task Navigation is located on the top right corner of the main menu in the latest Microstation V8 XM High security release (XM does not mean a thing! It just sound like some radio station to me!).

And finally, for 2-D people it is a good book to buy so that you can post page 220, 221 and 223 right in front of your available and visible wall so that you can learn and remember all the o,v,T,B,X,Y,D,A,L,RQ,RA,RE,RV,RZ,GT,GK,GA,WA,P,M,I,N,M,C,K,HA,HS,HU,Q,~,? key-in short cuts! I as 3-D people do envy your 2-D drafting brain power! We 3-D parametric solid modeling people do not have to face such problem at all!
Thank you and have a great day!

I have had two versions of this book before, so I knew what I was buying. The last version SE seemed more comprehensive. The book cover was damaged when I received it, however.

This is a great book if you are a now user and need to start from the scratch. There is a plenty of excercises, on the attached CD. On the other hand, it is written for American market, in other words, all measures are in inches and feet, not my favorites.

Dr. Phadke has written the most clear book on the Robust Design method. I was able to follow the book with medium statistical and engineering knowledge and gained valueable knowledge. This is a must read for all engineering managers!

Phadke gives a versatily, easy to read introduction into the on-target philosophy and the Quality Loss Function.

Many examples are taken from real case studies (e.g. from Xerox and ITT), covering mechanics, electronics and computer systems. These are good to inspire your own improvement projects.

Unfortunately, the most verstile characteristic is not treated (dynamic characteristic).

This is one of the earliest books on the subject. It gives an attractive treatment of the concepts and techniques of Robust Design, but is by now dated in view of the ideas that have been advanced and discussed among the professionals in the past decade. I look forward to a new edition of the book.

I dýdnt see your book but ý am sure ýt ýs a good book about thýs subjec

I dýdnt see your book but ý am sure ýt ýs a good book about thýs subjec

Great book.. Must own book for guys in this field!

Great book. Covers a lot of stuff. Should own this book!

This book traces the development of Rapid Prototyping Technology and its applications in the industry. Fundamentals such as the STL file format and the working principle behind the various systems are clearly explained and illustrated. This makes it suitable for use as a reference text for a course in RP. In addition, future development for these systems are discussed, making it also very useful those who are already familiar with the technology. Last but not least, the book includes many informative case studies to help the reader understand how RP is actually being used in the industry. This will help the reader select the best system to use for his particular application.

General coverage of all RP trends is good. Content in the CD-ROM is only informative. A Detailed coverage in CD-ROM would have been more useful. More details could be given on the resins/materials used in the different processes.

I used this to teach beginners to use Autocad, and was very pleased with it because it is what it says..basic. Some of those other books are so thick they are too intimidating to the students (besides costing too much) This book has good "try this" examples and practice ideas. I especially liked the "freezeframes" of the screen so students know what to look for and what buttons are supposed to be clicked, what their choices are and most importantly if they are in the right place. it was a very self-centered learning for the students as they went thru each chapter they could see for themselves if they were on track. I had less "i'm lost comments" than with other AutoCad books.

This thorough book will help anyone concerned with CAD/CAM related technology stay in touch with a fast changing world. It covers a wide range of topics from product design to manufacturing control. All of the major CAD/CAM topics are included as well as chapters on automation, numerical control and robotics. This is a serious tool for the dedicated engineering professional.

I hear the same comments by people who have attended manufacturing conferences and symposiums in the hope of attaining information useful to making decisions: each groups glorifys their 'new' idea of JIT, zero inventory or cellular manufacturing and adds to the neverending flow of ideas. For someone trying to apply this information the different ideas can seem as numerous as the waves on a beach, neverending and tough to tell one from another. JT Black's wonderful book brings many of those ideas together, defines them and compares them, concepts such as Just-in-time, Zero-Inventory and Minimal-inventory. The history of their development and successful applications are also described. The stages of development for a factory with a future are laid out in ten simple steps. This information can be used to build a plant or to examine where your plant is in the evolutionary process. I picked this book up while browsing a library and have found it to be the 'hidden treasure' as an everday tool. Many ideas and concepts are put into words, things that any person running a factory or making factory-level decisions knows but have never seen in print. Seeing a concept, such a simple definition of quality, makes that concept a more useful tool. I see this book as part of my tool package and can advise it for all, except my competition.

Shortly after this book came out in 2000, the US economy peaked, and then tumbled into a recession. During which, and since then, offshoring has become a very hot topic in the US, and also in Europe. Much has already been written elsewhere about the outsourcing of call centers and information technology to India, Phillipines and China, with the anticipation of more outsourcing to inevitably follow.

Which is why this book may be more topical now that just a few years ago, when it came out. It attempts to describe enterprise modelling in a global context. How to measure it and to then use this ability to, as objectively as possible, improve the global competitiveness of a company. The book has descriptions of metrics that can be computed and then compared across companies, for benchmarking. Plus, these measures could also be used across different national subsidiaries of a multinational, say. Or to compare the competitiveness measurements arising from two choices - to develop or maintain some ability inhouse, or to outsource it overseas.