3 comments about Harnessing Microstation V8 XM Edition.

1. 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!



2. 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.



3. 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.

5 comments about Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) 6.0 Classroom in a Book.

1. If there are those out there who have read: "Adobe Photoshop 6.0 Classroom in a Book" ISBN 0-201-71016-1
   and disliked it as much as I did, please submit reviews of better books you've found.
   
   I got the impression that, that book tried it's best to make sure you had very little idea of what the lesson was leading up to until the very last sentence. The problem with this method is that it makes understanding and following the lesson much more difficult because you have little idea of what it's leading up to.
   
   Using it as a reference is pretty much impossible. You can't just pick up the book and go to a point of interest and learn that topic. It seems like you have to start at the beginning of the book just to get the sence of something in the middle or end of the book. Frankly, what a piece of crap. Thanks for any recommendations.



2. When I first picked up Adobe Photoshop 6.0, I almost gave up on it because I had no idea how it worked. Instead I searched around for a book to teach me how to use it. Well, Photoshop 6.0 Classroom in a Book was the right one to chose! Simple, step by step lessons teach you about each feature of 6.0. If you're brand new to Photoshop, this book will make you an expert!



3. If you want the practice and need a step-by-step lesson, this is a good book. I did want the step-by-step practice, and I'm still glad I bought the book. However, it only tells you what to do. It's not very good at explaining why you're doing it or what exactly the overall effect will be. Also, any tool, filter, etc. that you don't learn about in the lessons, you don't really learn about at all. I think it's a great book for practice, but it's probably best used in conjunction with another book that doesn't have lessons but gives a better explanation of the tools, what they do, and when and why to use them. An example is probably Photoshop 6 For Dummies. I haven't bought it yet, but I've looked through it, and I think it will be helpful if used along with Classroom in a Book.



4. First, let me say that it is very easy to pick apart any book that attempts to introduce a beginner to such a complex application program as Photoshop6. I am not an expert on Photoshop but I have invested a lot of time and money learning how to use it effectively in web development. This is an very cost effective approach to learning some of the useful features that Photoshop offers to the artist both in the Print media and the electronic web pallet.
   Just remember this is starting point Photoshop is an life long pursuit if you are trying produce original quality work. If you can find a good copy used. It will be a reference book that you will continue to use years after you complete the exercises in it.



5. I found this book to be a good solid hands-on "text-book". The hands-on lessons made sense. The lessons explained what you were doing as you were doing it. This enabled you to really learn the information so that you would be able to fully utilize all the features of photoshop. Although I don't feel the lessons about the web uses of photoshop were as thorough, I had a good enough grasp of photoshop it took very little effort on my part to figure it out. This is the best book you can find explaining how to use photoshop you can find.

3 comments about ARCHITECTURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING.

1. We all know that information revolution has totally transformed the society. Architecture is no exception. Relative to industrial revolution's impact on architecture, "what has this recent revolution done to the field?" is the basic inquiry to the book. This book diligently answers to the question. It is extremely informative and provocative regarding digital technologies available for architecture.
   
   As an outcome of a symposium held at U.Penn. in 2002, the book compiles various scholars and practitioners around the world. They grapple with the current technologies available to design and manufacture innovative shapes/forms/spaces that associate with digital aesthetics.
   
   Spearheaded researchers such as Bill Mitchell(MIT), Chris Luebkeman(Arup), Ali Rahim (U.Penn), and Branko Kolarevic (U.Penn, chief editor of the book); and, cutting-edge practitioners such as Jim Glymph (Gehry), Hugh Whitehead (Foster & Partners), Bernhard Franken (Franken Architekten), etc.; both groups provide theoretical framework and actual applications.
   
   It's interesting to point out that the authors deliberately associated digital architecture with smooth forms. Double curvatures deform structure/ skin/ space of the building. The new modes of design and production enables that complex geometries to be part of building industry.
   
   As a reader, the most challenging claim of the book is that the authors
   assert (some explicitly and some implicitly) on the new role of an architect. They believe that this new mode of production will revolutionize the client-architect-contractor relationship. Because architects will be the (single) dominant source of information on the three dimensionally morphed shape, manufacturers and fabricators would rely heavy on architects. The authors predict architect would regain absolute power of medieval master builders.



2. I'm getting my masters in Architecture and this book is a must-have, must-read for anyone designing in the digital age. It's informational and inspiring not only for architects, but anyone interested in using computer technology as a method for design carried through to manufactuing.



3. This book provides a great overview of the developing technolgies in digital design and fabrication. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a comprehensive study in the current trends in digital architecture. A series of 20+ articles by designers working in this area of architecture, this book updates the conversation to what is happening today and what is being projected in the future. Great resource!

5 comments about How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics.

1. Yes, the book lacks formality. Instead it tackles problems the way smart people really tackle them, and not as some after-the-fact rationalization of the process. It is easy, even fun, to read.
   
   The main purpose of the book is not to show the recipes, although to a degree it does, but it is instead it shows how to pick which recipe to use. For some readers it will document and explain processes they may have already been using unconsciously. For others, there may be some "aha" moments.



2. The material is alright but it is just kind of old. I can not tell from the original description otherwise, I will
   not have bought it.



3. This is the best book I have in my optimization library. It is excellent for students and teachers as well. It introduces you to optimization using a simple language, practical examples explained in a very didactical manner. It surveys optimization techniques and categorizes it in a very well-arranged and simplified format. You wouldn't have to read tens of pages with unsightly symbols, messed with subscripts and superscripts to understand a single optimization technique.
   It also brings an uplifting introduction to the concept of problem solving. I highly recommend this book to Optimization and Mathematics students and teachers.
   Read the book, once you are done, look at the table of contents and give a five minutes lecture on each single title and subtitle, which is what you will be capable of doing at the end.



4. Most evolutionary computation or math books deal with the techniques of solving problems. This book teachs you how to think of a solution for the problem you face, and not what problems are appropriate for the technique in hand.
   
   The logic is that when you do a craft work, you do pick the appropriate tool from your tools box, but you don't grasp a tool and then find a job to go with it, which is the case when you can only handle this tool.



5. The authors have updated their successful first edition, though the latter, printed in 99, was scarcely obsolete. A heuristic can be basically a rule of thumb, dressed up in fancier language. What the authors intend is for you to develop an intuition about when to use modern algorithms. Where is almost every case, these are actually implemented on a computer; a reflection of the cheap availability of computing power to most readers.
   
   The book is a good complement to various standard algorithm texts, like those by Sedgewick, Aho and Knuth. You can consider this book as standing a level above those. [Though Knuth's books also do an excellent job of suggesting when to use or modify algorithms. ]
   
   The level of discussion here is not of a strict, heavy mathematical approach. It can be read as informal guidelines, that discuss the gist of such ideas as simulated annealing and evolutionary methods. There is a wide range of example problems, to motivate you in understanding what might be used to solve them.

5 comments about Eric Sloane's An Age of Barns: An Illustrated Review of Classic Barn Styles and Construction.

1. Other reviewers have done a good job of describing this and I agree with them. I'll just add that this wonderfully illustrated book really brought the memories flooding back.



2. Eric Sloane is known to many of us who love traditional country things as the superb and prolific American artist and author who gave us books with good words and even better drawings. Sloane was an accidental historian of that era of American life when agriculture was king. I cherish my copies of his A Museum of Early American Tools and A Reverence For Wood.
   
   The Age of Barns was first published in 1967. I saw this 2001 version lying on a table in a friend's house and begged to borrow it. The sub-title is An Illustrated Review of Classic Barn Styles and Construction. It is more than that as it also shows silos, root cellars, springhouses, sugarhouses, corn cribs and smoke houses. Also shown are tools of barn builders, construction methods, types of ventilation systems and even hinge design.
   
   Sloane shows the evolution of this most important structure with examples large and small and from many places. Medieval, English, German, American barns. Small and large log barns. The Appalachian overhung-loft barn built on two cribs, decorated Pennsylvania barns, a Georgia barn, a Maine barn, a Tennessee saltbox barn. Pent roofs, gambrel roofs, extended bays, threshing bays. Connecting barns, built so the farmer could do a winter day's chores without going outside.
   
   I have known two barns intimately. The barn on our Wisconsin farm was a classic two-story bank barn built of stone on the lower level with hand-hewn posts and beams above, a cupola topping it off. The farmer whose death allowed my parents to buy the farm had been an alfalfa producer so the barn had huge mows that were filled both from the outside using a hay hook and from the inside where teams and wagons were taken straight in and through. The dairy herd was housed in the lower section next to the sixteen-foot silo. I pulled a lot of, um, teats in that barn.
   
   The humble hillbilly barn at Heartwood in Missouri has two sections separated by a drive-through. In barns this design is called double-crib; in houses it is called a dog-trot. The construction is of hewn oak logs with half-dovetail corners. The logs are held off the ground only with loose stones, so early deterioration was inevitable. When the barn was still in pretty good shape we took a family photo one Fourth of July. My cousin and I hung the huge American flag that was hand-sewn by a grandmother for Lincoln's inauguration and we all posed in front of it on the ground.
   
   Born in 1905, Eric Sloane died in 1985, walking to a luncheon in his honor celebrating his memoir, Eighty: An American Souvenir. His fine books will live on long after him, a legacy of focus and craftsmanship.



3. Sloane's books capture the romanticism of the past better than any picture books, and that is certainly true for his An Age of Barns. The beautiful line drawings range from evocative perspectives to working sections, giving you a good idea of how these barns worked. There are Shaker round barns, traditional gambrel barns, Amish barn raisings and a wide variety of outbuildings associated with the early American farmstead. He lovingly focuses on hinge details, stairs and ventilation openings. Sloane's eye never missed a detail, and for anyone who loves old barns this is the book to get.



4. This has some interesting history of early barns, especially those of New England. Drawings are well done, as usual. If you are interested in barns west of the Mississippi look elsewhere.



5. and I understand that barn so much better now that I have read this book. Sloane gives a brief overview of the history of barns, regional types of barns, and even the tools to raise a barn. A lovely book.

No comments about Harnessing AutoCAD 2008.

2 comments about Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer.

1. I am not sure that I will use Amazon.com again.
   
   I am an instructor at a local college. I ordered books two & half weeks prior to my class beginning. a couple of days prior to class beginning, I wrote to Amazon asking where the books were. I received no answer. I wrote again on the day class began. I received no answer. The books arrived after the class began and I had no choice but to drive around town hand delivering the books to students who had not found the books on their own. I returned the remainder.
   
   Correspondence is either non existant or slow at best. I found Amazon a internet site with a lot to offer, but service and communication is not one of them.
   Karen Easter, IIDA, CEO
   IDR, Inc.



2. If you're interested in architectural programming--defining a project's requirements prior to designing--then this book is a "must read." Why "Problem Seeking?" Pena explains that since design is problem solving, programming is, "the search for sufficient information to clarify, to understand, to state the problem."
   Part One of the book is a primer, focusing on theory and principles. Part Two is the "how to do it" section, providing details and examples. The book is based on decades of real-life project examples from one of the most experienced architectural programming teams in the nation.
   
   
   The core idea is profound: Separating programming (analysis) from design (synthesis), brings tremendous clarity to the design problem. Focusing first on the goals, facts and concepts, then translating those into quantifiable needs (independent of the solution!) facilitates decision-making and encourages innovation.
   
   
   Reading this book won't make you an architectural programmer, but it provides an essential foundation for anyone involved in a building project--architects and owners alike. The book is used as a text book in architecture schools across the country, and is required reading before taking the Architectural Registration Exam. A 9 out of 10 only because it will leave you yearning for more.

4 comments about Your Green Home: A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly New Home (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series).

1. I thought this was a good primer on the subject and got several helpful tips. While I already knew a lot of the material, nevertheless It inspired me to make some changes in my own home.
   
   I was also inspired by The House That Faux Built which showed how to give your home a facelift without ripping things out (and filling the landfills) It showed me how to paint and plaster over cabinets, tiles and floors for a complete update. the 2 books together made a big difference.



2. I am an interior designer and work for an architectural firm. Because of the information I have learned thru my education and professional experience, I found very little new information in this book. If you have no knowledge of green building practices, this book would be beneficial.



3. This book was a overview/introduction to building a green home. Should be a must read for builders and anyone planning on building a new home. Not all strategies will work for every situation, but there's lots here that would apply for any situation or budget.



4. The text is well-written and can appeal to a wide audience. It's simple enough to understand for those without a great deal of knowledge in sustainable design, yet interesting and usefull enough for the professional who's more trained in sustainability. The text covers sustainable homes in a logical order, first stressing the foundation concepts like siting, orientation, passive solar, and building envelope efficiency, BEFORE moving on to less critical (but more popular) topics such as green materials.
   
   I am a professor of Environmental Design and am currently building a passive solar, zero-energy home, and if I were to write a text that comprises the whole of the process and goals in sustainable home building, the format and breadth of topics would be similar to this book.
   
   One negative of the book is the absence of color images to illustrate some points. The simple line drawings get the point across, but photos might have a better impact - especailly in sections discussing more advanced systems such as renewable energy systems or rainwater catchment systems.

5 comments about CNC Programming Handbook, 2nd Edition.

1. This book is very detailed and good for a person with some knowledge to improve their usefulness and get a good background on CNC's. I would recommend reading it carefully if your completely unaware of cnc programing.For the cnc operator its a good next step, but would recommend a more basic book to start with.Careful study of the commands would be of the most help to any beginner.



2. Simple to read & learn. Just useful & important information inside. Highly recommended !
   
   Thank`s a lot to author of this great book, it very helped me in my carere of CNC programmer.



3. it helps with step by step instructions plus the cd has alot of practice stuff on it.



4. This is an excellent reference for CNC Programming. It is very useful for a person with limited experience or someone who programs every day. It is very easy to read and comprehend.



5. I work in Ireland in a small workshop with Fanuc and Heidenhain controllers. This book gave me an inspiration in programming. Still everything depends only on you but this book reveals how much you can learn of your machine. I'd say this book is excellent for operators and beginners in programming using ISO Fanuc format.
   Dimitri Gorelik, Paul Quinn Engineering Ltd. Ireland

5 comments about Model Making: A Basic Guide.

1. Good book for what it is, but it really is very basic and the techniques are not for anything complex.



2. A very well illustrated introduction to the art of architectural modeling. Good discussion of materials and methods, as well a some introduction to the aesthetics of the business. Excellent for beginners.



3. The book was not detailed enough, but it had some very insightful tips. All the pictures were hand drawn. I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. If you are causal beginner, you might try something SIMILAR to a Warhammer Terrain how-to book (table top games would be too specific). Something like that would have more step by step photographs and detailed instructions for making models.



4. Very basic. Lots of different techniques, none covered in depth. For the very beginner.



5. This is an elegant little book of line illustrations dealing with the art of architectural model building. It is not really a "how to" book. This book is ideal for people who already posses plenty of artistic talent. They will see basic concepts and be able to go from there.
   
   If like me, you want to make models to help out with your kid's school projects, this book is not for you. For anybody looking for a step by step guide to making models, I would recommend a book by Games Workshop called, "How to Make Wargames Terrain", a beautifully illustrated guide book aimed towards teenagers