| Publication Details: | |
|---|---|
| Publication: | “PC Plus”, UK |
| Issue: | 117 |
| Date: | July 1996 |
| Product Information: | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Inside AutoCAD LT for Windows (2nd edition) |
| Author: | Rusty Gesner, Dennis Hill & Peter Tobey |
| Publisher: | New Rider Publishing |
| Supplier: | Transworld Publishers Ltd. |
| Internet: | http://www.mcp.com/newriders |
| Tel.: | 00121 706 6000 |
| ISBN: | 1-56205-361-2 |
| Price at time of publication: | £37.49 |
Inside AutoCAD LT for Windows (2nd edition)
New Riders Publishing have a long track-record in producing books for AutoCAD. “Inside AutoCAD” has long been well regarded within the AutoCAD community as an effective introduction to the subject. Now in its second edition, “Inside AutoCAD LT for Windows” attempts to bring the same level of expertise to Autodesk’s mid-priced CAD product.
Although it contains material which helps users with previous CAD experience, “Inside AutoCAD LT” is written primarily for novices. As such it devotes a considerable amount of space to basic concepts and procedures. Despite this, it still manages to cover an enormous amount of ground – users who work methodically through the whole book will cover just about every major feature in the program.
“Inside AutoCAD LT” is a tutorial rather than a reference manual. Each section starts with the theoretical background, followed by exercises reinforcing the theory – a classic training technique. The text contains plenty of useful tips, notes and advice to flesh out the exercises. The book covers just about everything, from drawing simple objects to establishing working conventions, and is structured sensibly, with a logical progression from beginning to end.
Although it’s a huge book, weighing in at over 1100 pages, this is a fair reflection of the size of the subject. Despite this, the books’ clear structure, language and presentation all help to make everything easily accessible. The exercises are well-designed both in terms of their context and operation, taking care to use drawings based on real-world examples instead of arbitrary sketches. Commendably, the authors resist the temptation to repeat large sections of the reference manual.
It’s hard to fault “Inside AutoCAD LT”. It goes to enormous lengths to guide users carefully through new concepts and basic operations, while covering enough ground to satisfy professional designers. An excellent training document.
Tim Baty