1 comments about Architecture in Detail: Spaces (Architecture in Detail).

1. This serie is absolut outstanding, You will love it if your are a hardcore fan of the simple expression of complex thoughts in good architectur.

3 comments about Pro/ENGINEER Tutorial (Release 2000i-2) & MultiMedia CD.

1. I just started using ProE at work and this book was very helpful in teaching me the fundamentals of Pro-E 2000i2. The click by click examples are easy to follow. The book shows you the most common commands that you'll use when you start designing your first parts. I recommend you practice some of the projects in this book before you take the week long "Fundamentals of Pro Engineer" course offered by PTC. The fast paced course can become very frustrating if you are completely new to ProE. This book also has very few text errors. The book's CD demonstrations are also helpful. Overall, I am very satisfied with my first ProE book.



2. I am pretty good at AutoCAD 14. Some projects at work use AutoCAD. However we have an expanding repertoire of Pro-engineer files. I do not need to use Pro-engineer, as I am a Sr. Systems Analyst in the Information Systems department. However I occasionally need to converse with R&D. this book makes it much easier to communicate without having to translate.

   This tutorial allows me to hit the deck running. I bought a three-button mouse; in case you did not the book shows how to use a two-button mouse and the control key. I am amazed at how clear the book is and that it does not require you to lean the time's tables first.

   Now you may say it has black and white pictures witch makes describing colors difficult. That is true however there is an accompanying CD that has color and voiceover motion. Well now we come to the CD. First attempt was on a machine with a defective sound card that completely keeps the CD from loading. No There was warning from the CD. OK so your machine is perfect. Next I tried it on a windows 98. It went through the first tutorial and hung up with no way out. Again on an NT, Again on windows 2000, nowhere in the book was a web site to contact. Just as I was about to give up I looked at the screen and said what is version 200? Yep the resolution was 800 by 600. Increased the resolution and bingo.

   While waiting for this revelation to come to me I tried just reading the book and using the Student version of Pro-engineer. The book said, "do not worry. If you make a mistake you can always back out." It forgot to tell you how to back out. Then it started to describe the coordinate creation system without the picture of the tool bare on the right that was hidden by a part menu. It is quite clear on the as of yet not working tutorial CD.

   Well I am over those hurtles and off and running. Believe me this tutorial will pay for its self in the first hr.




3. I am a new user to Pro-E. My only past experience in 3-D modeling was using AutoDesks's Mechanical Desktop.

   I found Toogood's tutorial to be just the ticket I needed to come up to speed quickly on how to use the major features of the software. The tutorial is very well organized and concise. I have now compledted about 75% of the lessons and feel that I can be productive at desiging complicated parts. Toogood does an outstanding job of identifing certain caveats in the program at just the right time in the lessons. Don't let the realitively small page count of the book fool you, it is packed with usefull information without a lot of elementry windows stuff and hand holding. The book is extreamly accurate when it outlays Pro-E commands and what the expected response will be.

   My only criticism is that there are no color pictures. Since Pro-E has the capabiltiy to generate stunning shaded images it would have added greatly to the text. Color would also add some clarity since Pro-E uses specific colors to relay axis position and datum relationship information e.g. yellow is positive red is negative.

   I would highly reccommend this book to anyone who is familiar with general mechanical design principles and is looking to quickly come up to seed with Pro-e 2000i2.

4 comments about Maximizing Autolisp/Book and Disk.

1. I did not need any other book on AutoLISP programming - This book went with me anywhere I did - the toilet , my bed , my computer desk. It DID NOT teach DCL programming so I bought another (by Christian Immler). If you want to see what I used AutoLISP for - check the website mentioned below. If you can get the book it - DO IT ...



2. Too bad this book is out of print. I was impressed by the content, the ease of looking items up, and the examples. I wish the book had been updated for Rev. 13 of AutoCad. If you have Amazon try and locate a copy for you and they find one, consider yourself a luck programmer.



3. inside AUTOLISP first edition 1989 Dear Authors, I would like to order the lastest book that you wrote, Please contact me as soon as you can. Thank you



4. This book provided tools for me to reason and develope my own applications. Fantastically written. A must for any serious user

1 comments about Wine & Design (Designpockets).

1. This is a small book, only slightly larger than a pocket book. While the book is full of pictures, the text is disappointing. All text is written in five different languages. In trying to meet the needs of so many, the book has fallen short in delving in the subject with any depth what so ever.

1 comments about Security Planning and Design: A Guide for Architects and Building Design Professionals (Security).

1. This is a comprehensive book, complete with graphics that pretty much starts off as Building Security 101 and gets more intricate throughout the book. This is s good guidebook for any decision makers who need a reference manual.

2 comments about Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World.

1. rick poyner has done it again. i think that if you are interested in design and cultural landscape, you will thourougly appreciate this book. you really can't find a better examination of culture meeting design. obey the giant.



2. Rick Poyner chimes in on pop culture throughout this series of essays, which collectively produce a loud, clanging wake-up call. If you are a creative professional or student, you MUST read this book!

   Mr. Poyner provides an accessible, but unflinching look at the role of our profession and it's impact on humanity. In this book, the cute, hip, self-referential "Irony" of the last decade is no longer a revelation, and Poyner questions what it means now that "respected" corporations and self-promoting advertisers and designers have co-opted it.

   As an instructor of Commuication Design, I have for years preached to my students to "be responsible for every mark that you make" in order to communicate effectively. This little book has fueled that fire for me with it's view of the bigger picture and has forever altered my perception of my role not only as a designer and a consumer, but as a human.

No comments about Introduction to AutoCAD(R) 2007: A Modern Perspective.

No comments about Dimension: 306090 12 (306090 Architecture Journal).

2 comments about Designing Programmes.

1. Although this edition came out in 2007, much of its substance derives from the original 1964 edition. That sat as close to the Swiss School of typography and Bauhaus era as to our own, maybe closer, and it shows. Much of this text comes across with the same strident certainty of those streams of thought, but without the adolescent braggadaccio. Still, much remains worthwhile to today's designer, so let's start there.
   
   First, as you'd expect, the typography is lucid and legible. Pages have clean, airy layout, and graphics express their concepts with minimal fuss. Typesetting uses a font of the author's own design, a sanserif with warm character. I could fault it for a few things, the digit "8" in particular, and creation of the italic through a simple geometric tilt rather than a rethinking of the emphasis and letterforms. Still it reads comfortably and gives distinctive timbre to the author's voice. Even page numbering is unique without being annoying. Only lack of an index truly mars the book's design.
   
   At the back, exercises with gray or colored gradients suggest useful and playful explorations of many kinds. And, as a computing geek, I applaud many of Gerstner's examples of algorithmic development and combinatorial thoroughness. Some of his tools, based on Fritz Zwicky's boxes but owing equally to Ramon Lull's layered disks, can help anyone break a creative logjam through systematic exploration of a design space.
   
   But, although Gerstner uses the combinatoric tools of the mathematician, he wields them clumsily. For example, p.13 presents a family of related graphic elements, and asserts that the 16 can be combined three at a time in 560 distinct ways. Well, that would be true, except that pattern #5 would obscure #6 completely, #10 would hide #11 and #12, and #9 would hide #8. Although there are 560 possible combinations, there are far fewer visibly different combinations. Another combinatorial exercise blandly assumes that all design elements are distinguishable (as in "a-d-b-e-c"). It would enumerate quite differently if elements could be reused (as in "a-c-b-b-c"). His computer poetry is quaintly naive and, like Kandinsky, he equates graphic elements to sounds in a way that can only be a personal quirk or flaw in translation. In the end, Gerstner throws in the towel on the unguided exercise in permutations and combinations: "... it is difficult to design something as complex as font families that are not only new, but also innovative. Despite all the best programmatic efforts, it is probably impossible." Even though programming and hardware have advanced far beyond anything dreamt in this book, I have to agree. Foreseeable decades do not include obsolescence of human artistry, no matter what mechanical tools support it.
   
   Gerstner's book is interesting and potentially helpful. It tries to summon the strength of mathematical formalisms in design, but does so without the rigor that gives math its strength. Still, it offer ideas that can kick-start a stalled creative session, and shows that even simple elements offer combinatorial richness - a happy escape from complexity imposed from without.
   
   -- wiredweird



2. Gerstner's tome, Designing Programmes has developed a cult-like following and Lars Mueller wisely chose to reprint it. First editions sell upwards of 700-800 and this makes it out of reach for most. I was excited to see this book reprinted.
   
   I have a German edition and have used it as a reference, translating my own to English. This is an area where I am let down; when reading the translation in this edition, it does not flow smoothly and reads ambiguously in parts. A lot of text could have been cut out or better written for a more succinct read.
   
   Another area of disappointment is the picture quality: There are blurred photos, type with jagged edges, pixel edges on some photos, and errant dot patterns. It appears as if the original material was not used to produce this edition, instead scanning in or photographing pre-screened images.
   
   Despite these short comings, I believe it is a valuable book to own for any educator, student or practicing designer. Gerstner takes the reader through a logical and step-by-step process of solution, or program development to design problems.

2 comments about Advanced ASIC Chip Synthesis Using Synopsys® Design Compiler® Physical Compiler® and PrimeTime®.

1. This book is geared towards the synopsys synthesis tools (as evident in the title). It gives brief explanations about vhdl and verilog coding style (which can be found in many other books).
   The actual useful part was that the book explored the commonly used synthesis commands in synopsys, and also had explanations on the steps to follow to succesfully synthesize rtl. These ideas can also be used on synthesis tools from other vendors.
   
   This book is good for people already familiar with front end rtl design and are looking into moving to backend.



2. This book is interesting as an introduction to these tools but needs more depth