2 comments about Carchitecture: When the Car and the City Collide.

1. A moderate history on the century of man's life with autos, and have the autos have in turn shaped our lives and environments. I thought Mr. Bell was quite objective in his tone, as many works on this subject tend to be penned by the auto-phile/phobe. A generous use of illustration and encapsulated photos keep the content matter varied, and the reader engaged.

   I didnt particularly like the layout of the book. While chronologically correct, the order of material lacks a certain clarity. Additionally, I would have preferred to see an emphasis on the current state of affairs, as oppossed the lengthy history, which comprises perhaps half the book. Aside from these two small points, I though the work was a delightful read and a success.




2. Jonathan Bell's Carchitecture examines the fall-out from the collision of autos and urban environments, from experimental cars and freeways to parking garages and home environments. Cars and architecture both need to change, and this book maintains its arguments with a series of intriguing color photos and plenty of written insights.

No comments about Lequeu: An Architectural Enigma.

No comments about The Auto Cad 2002 Workbook: A Complete Educational and Trainging Guide for Mastering 2d Applications of Autocad 2002.

1 comments about Mainstreaming Sustainable Architecture: Casa de PajaA Demonstration.

1. First rate compilation of well-known and not so well-known methods of incorporating sustainable architectural components into your design. This is the official book for the designers and builders of The Benchley Project in Central Texas (a sustainable living community which promotes resource conservation and exploitation). Green designers now have a "handbook" that covers a broad spectrum of environmentally driven design issues.

No comments about Where We Live (Adventures in Architecture).

3 comments about A Tutorial Guide to Autocad Release 14.

1. I adopted this book for my AutoCAD course this year, and the results have been notable. Students take to the tutorial approach very well, and the Lockhart tutorials are nicely done.

   However, assigning homeworks out of this book is somewhat difficult, as there are quite a few exercises with missing dimensions and geometry errors. We've had to adjust on the fly and hand out some supplements.

   All in all a good book. I would hope Ms. Lockhart updates this format for ACAD 2000... and proofreads the exercises!




2. I have used this, and previous editions in my AutoCAD classes. Unfortunately, I have to switch texts because Lockhart has not updated this book for release 2000.

   The presentation is a bit weak in the area of drawing using surveyor measure, and ISOMETRIC drawing is omitted entirely. I use supplemental material for this. Many assignments have minor errors, and the chapter does not always proprly cover how to do the assignment. However, the sample problems are quite good and should interest the student.

   This book is well organized and takes the reader from the very beginning through 3-D drawing. Presentation style is easy to read, and the size of the book is nice to handle.




3. My AutoCAD class is currently using this book as our textbook for the course. Being a beginning AutoCAD student, even at age 59, I find this book to be easy to use and understand. The downloadable templates that are provided with the textbook are superb.

No comments about High-Level Synthesis for Real-Time Digital Signal Processing: The CATHEDRAL-II Silicon Compiler (The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science).

No comments about Introducing AutoCAD 2006.

No comments about Koetter Kim & Associates: Place/Time.

5 comments about Into 3D With form.Z.

1. Unfortunately, the author (who writes terrific reviews for software on CADence by the way) is not too good at writing an instructional book for FormZ. Granted, if you have a question, you can probably find an answer to it within this book, but good luck finding it. The organization is mediocre at best. The flow is haphazard and the author never gets the perfect mix of going from a)"This is what this feature does" to b)"Try this as an example." My advice to all computer book authors is to read George Omura's books and emulate what he does. THAT is the perfect way to both teach complete functionality while "learning as you go."



2. Now that I have a fair understanding of FormZ (after many weeks )I feel I can deliver a fair review of this book: The author never had a chance. I have used several other 3D applications and many 2D graphics programs. They all have some things in common, but FormZ appears as if developed on the Moon. The interface is devoid of elegance and requires more mouse clicks to do simple operations than any other program. It is inconsitant and has no sense of a being a unified package. It is more like hundreds of independent programs tossed into a basket -- none of them having anything to do with each other. Lachmi Khemlani tries to bring order to this unruly rat's nest, but really has no chance. Perhaps knowing FormZ has the unintended consequence of forgetting how the rest of the world does 3D. How else to explain why she often leaves out very basic information. She tells you, for instance, "draw a square at 45 degrees on the center of the previous shape." Unlike every other program on the planet, however, FormZ has no align tool, making centering objects an ordeal at any angle. Ms. Khemlani does not explain this, nor any other, basic FormZ deviation. It is a train wreak of a program which can be mastered, but in doing so one must unlearn every other computer graphics program -- a difficult positon for an author writing a how -to book. FormZ may be powerful, but all the power in the world cannot overcome this utterly confused interface without one-on-one instruction. My advice: buy the book, but only as a supplement to a class.



3. I may be a little harsh on the rating but I think the book has a descent starting foundation for the beginner. I have this problem of only reading to page 150 of any "how to" book and I found myself doing the same with this one. However, I have come back to this book repeatedly for answers and modeling help. Mind you this is not reference book so much as it's a tutorial as the final tutorial helps has you draw the books cover. I did find that this book gave me a descent foundation to where I knew enogh to experiment on my own, which in my opinion is one of the best ways to learn.



4. I work for a professional Design firm in Pittsburgh and we were asked to take on the challenge of 3D modeling with FormZ. My Illustration Team needed to learn it fast and thanks to this book, we all did just that... even though none of us had 3D modeling experience!

   I felt a bit overwhelmed when I saw the FORMZ interface but this book tamed every step of the learning curve. Exceptionally easy to read and an excellent resource. We're ordering another one today so we all don't have to fight over just one!

   Get it. Read it. Know it. Done. :)




5. When I encoutered this book I thought it would be the key to unlock the simple task of rendering architectural spaces for school. I was wrong. Coming from a background Photoshop, I thought this application that runs on Mac would be more user friendly, but it isn't and this book definitely has not helped me unlock some of the elementary skills. I have tried many nights to figure it out but sadly I am going to have to wait until some lab course at school opens the doors for me. Very hard to follow "workshops." No wonder it's on sale!