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Rating: 
Summary: A great 2004 SW book for begineers to intermediates
Review: I am 47 years old and have been through 3 company downsizings. I've been a draftsman for 20 years. What did we ever do without software? At my new position, I needed to learn SolidWorks quickly. I did my research before I purchased this book. I talked to the authors and downloaded a sample chapter off the publishers website. I am very glad that I did this. The book provides excellent examples and procedures for the beginner to the intermediate. A lot of the other books out there are not as complete and they assume that you know various areas of the software and manufacturing procedures. We all know that happens when you assume!!!! I have been there!! There is a great deal of emphasis on creating and modifying parts and thinking about the manufacturer's process. I've been in the industry for 20 plus years and there were some design hints that I did not know. Thank you. If you are looking for a SW dictionary this is not a book for you. If you are looking for a great design book to learn how to use SW and to learn about manufacturing and design intent, this is the book.
Rating:
Summary: A great 2004 SW book for begineers to intermediates
Review: I am 47 years old and have been through 3 company downsizings. I've been a draftsman for 20 years. What did we ever do without software? At my new position, I needed to learn SolidWorks quickly. I did my research before I purchased this book. I talked to the authors and downloaded a sample chapter off the publishers website. I am very glad that I did this. The book provides excellent examples and procedures for the beginner to the intermediate. A lot of the other books out there are not as complete and they assume that you know various areas of the software and manufacturing procedures. We all know that happens when you assume!!!! I have been there!! There is a great deal of emphasis on creating and modifying parts and thinking about the manufacturer's process. I've been in the industry for 20 plus years and there were some design hints that I did not know. Thank you. If you are looking for a SW dictionary this is not a book for you. If you are looking for a great design book to learn how to use SW and to learn about manufacturing and design intent, this is the book.
Rating: 
Summary: suitable for new designers
Review: I my opinion, the book takes a new or would-be designer from the beginning to being able to use SolidWorks. It contains some good basic design information that would be useful regardless of the CAD software. Unfortunately, the book does not have an index and it is almost impossible to use as a reference to augment the SolidWorks Help screens. The pictures are simple, black and white screen prints and are sometimes difficult to see.
Rating:
Summary: suitable for new designers
Review: I my opinion, the book takes a new or would-be designer from the beginning to being able to use SolidWorks. It contains some good basic design information that would be useful regardless of the CAD software. Unfortunately, the book does not have an index and it is almost impossible to use as a reference to augment the SolidWorks Help screens. The pictures are simple, black and white screen prints and are sometimes difficult to see.
Rating:
Summary: Autocad user to SolidWorks user
Review: My reseller recommended this book to me and I am glad I took his advice. In Autocad, we used one dwg for each part and each view became a block for the assembly. Converting to SW presented a few challenges - my biggest occurred working between the three file types and losing documents. This book ties together file organization, numerous features and multiple parts-assemblies-drawings. The examples work back and forth between different files types to understand the ramifications of making changes to a feature, part or subassembly, even for a beginner like me. The CD contains hours of movies that follow the directions in the book and additional modeling tips. The movies go over every feature with simple parts and a clear discussion on design intent. We use layout sketches in ACAD for conceptual design. The authors describe top down design with a sheet metal electrical box that illustrates assembly sketches, configurations and design tables. They have definitely been inside a sheet metal shop. The book and the CD forces you to use the online user's guide and read the tip of the day. At first, I blew it off -but now I find myself actually locating information online and not losing my files. Well done. I strongly recommend this book for the new user.
Rating:
Summary: Good 2004 Book
Review: This book does an good job of teaching basic to intermediate techniques. I like this book because it is very clearly written and gives you instructions step by step: "Click the front plane" and "Click the rectangle" and so on. There are lots of graphics, pictures and examples to help you along. The CD contains lots of movies about the projects and extra tips to show you how to just do it. I recommend this book for the new user.
Rating:
Summary: Good 2004 Book
Review: This book does an good job of teaching basic to intermediate techniques. I like this book because it is very clearly written and gives you instructions step by step: "Click the front plane" and "Click the rectangle" and so on. There are lots of graphics, pictures and examples to help you along. The CD contains lots of movies about the projects and extra tips to show you how to just do it. I recommend this book for the new user.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, could have been better
Review: This book is my first intro to Solidworks, found it easy to follow.
Exercises are good, have to ferret thru the Net to get information to complete some of the exercises.
The included CD has all the lessons animated. Great work here. If you get bored reading the book, pop in the CD, sit back and enjoy some Solidworks modeling.
The appendix has some external info / reference links and also different types of cursor feedback pictures. I haven't found much use for these cursor pictures yet.
Authors present design scenarios sometimes bordering on overkill, hey, go ahead teach us how to do the thing, we'll do the whining when push comes to shove!!!
In some cases you have to finish a drawing with correct dimensions, as given in the book, in order to proceed to the next step/chapter, this can be a drawback when doing some casual doodling in Solidworks.
An index would have helped immensely.
All said, a good buy for an introduction to Solidworks 2004, if you already are familiar with any other version of Solidworks, save your money, spend some time with the software and learn whats new!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book for the Classroom
Review: This is a great book. I reviewed this book in October to use in my classroom for the Spring semester. Note: I reviewed over five other SW books by other authors. By far this is the best book for all skill sets in a classroom environment. I teach four classes a week of SolidWorks. Each class has approximately 25 students with various skills. After spending time with this book, you can tell that the authors teach for a living and are user of the software. PS: I meet them at SW World and they are great for addtional advice.
This easy to use book walks you through SW in no time by combining parts that you create with sub-assemblies and assemblies. The numerous illustrations with the easy step-by-step procedure makes this book ideal for the classroom. At the end of each project, additional parts and sub-assemblies are available to build your confidence. The book spends a great deal of time addressing sketch relationships. This is time well spent. The drawing chapter takes you through setting up a sheet format, detailing drawings, setting part numbers in a BOM and inserting design tables. All great things.
I found myself and my students viewing the movies on the book's CD. This book is the total package. I contacted the authors and their 2005 will be released this month. This is great news when I upgrade this summer to 2005.
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