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Rating: 
Summary: I Totally Agree with the Previous Review!
Review: As a 12 year experienced journeyman, I found the book and program to do exactly what was expected. When someone buys a book or tries to learn from a book. Its intended purpose is to teach a person the foundation of the subject matter. This book was designed to give just that. I have tested the software and found no problems that would have not occurred in a real life situation. Do not teach students that if your CNC does not work or crashes, than the CNC machine or manufacturer [stinks]! To the teachers of the world that complain that it does not work. Get a Life! In the real world, CNC operations do just what you complain about, they CRASH. Now teach your students how to correct the problem. Stop teaching them how to complain. The software and book, and any book of learning, are not intended to make you and expert. It is to TEACH people that want to learn about the subject mater! Do to the number of different CNC interfaces that are on the market or being used in the REAL world. The book tells you right from the beginning, that codes are different to each machine manufacturer. That most machines are based off of the ISO standards, but use their own codes. If someone wants to learn the foundation of CNC's then this is a book for them.
Rating:
Summary: Get a Life!
Review: As a 12 year experienced journeyman, I found the book and program to do exactly what was expected. When someone buys a book or tries to learn from a book. Its intended purpose is to teach a person the foundation of the subject matter. This book was designed to give just that. I have tested the software and found no problems that would have not occurred in a real life situation. Do not teach students that if your CNC does not work or crashes, than the CNC machine or manufacturer [stinks]! To the teachers of the world that complain that it does not work. Get a Life! In the real world, CNC operations do just what you complain about, they CRASH. Now teach your students how to correct the problem. Stop teaching them how to complain. The software and book, and any book of learning, are not intended to make you and expert. It is to TEACH people that want to learn about the subject mater! Do to the number of different CNC interfaces that are on the market or being used in the REAL world. The book tells you right from the beginning, that codes are different to each machine manufacturer. That most machines are based off of the ISO standards, but use their own codes. If someone wants to learn the foundation of CNC's then this is a book for them.
Rating:
Summary: I Totally Agree with the Previous Review!
Review: I have spent hundreds of dollars looking for the perfect CNC "all in one" book. I have read all the reviews from "CNC authorities(LOL)" bad mouthing this book/CD. The CNC Workshop is the book you want if you know nothing about CNC and would prefer a multimedia presentation and a CNC Milling simulator and a CNC turning simulator to try your hand at machining a CNC part on your computer. READ THIS!: This is strictly an introduction to CNC..That's all!..That's all it was meant to be!..and it is darn good at what it does. After you have saturated your brain with the info in the multimedia presentation...get the CNC Programming Handbook by Peter Smid to get you past the basics. I have used the multimedia presentation numerous times to teach new CNC operators the basics. You have to start somewhere and this is an entertaining way to learn.
Rating: 
Summary: CD alone worth the price; trouble under Win2000
Review: I totally disagree with the previous reviewer's opinion: the software is what makes this book great. Of course you need the latest version of IE to run the CD, but why is that a problem? The CD includes what amounts to a complete multimedia course on CNC machining, including mill and lathe simulators. I was totally impressed. That is a lot of video clips and footage of the actual machining process. I sat down knowing little about CNC and left able to write CNC programs to make real parts. What's really great is that once you learn a concept, you can try it out on the simulators. That really speeds up the learning process and helps retention. You can immediately answer any questions you have about how things actually work by doing little experiments. Except for a few rough edges on the simulators, everything worked great. We had a little trouble with the file structure of the CD under Windows 2000 NTFS. The programs worked except it wouldn't autorun the install program or let you browse the CD. Finally we had to clone the CD on Win98 to get it to work on Windows 2000. The best book I've seen on CNC yet, all because of the CD. Not perfect, but highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Could I get my money back??
Review: My school gave me CNC Workshop and we never use it. I put programming into simulation and doesn't work. I think there is much missing information.
Rating:
Summary: Could I get my money back??
Review: My school gave me CNC Workshop and we never use it. I put programming into simulation and doesn't work. I think there is much missing information.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, worthless software
Review: The book is an update to the previous edition. Unfortunately, everything you needed to know can be found in the original version for less $$. The software is buggy. The Java code is "write once, run maybe" and will not install on anything but certain versions/builds of Windows and internet explorer. Great book for learning G-codes, but buy the first edition at a discount.
Rating:
Summary: A poorly written, inaccurate text
Review: This book sells well because of the simulator CD which impresses beginners and highschool level students. Anyone with CNC machining experience and know-how will come away disappointed. CNC Workshop illustrates dozens of factual errors in programming format, it contains some glaring omissions, and spends far too much space promoting its own flawed software. This software has crashed and frozen up in many of my students' computers and fails to accurately portray CNC motion. This is an adequate book for very basic level CNC knowledge or for people with only elementary knowledge of the English language. It does an acceptable job of explaining some basic NC concepts and the multimedia package (NOT the simulator) is fairly helpful for educators. It would be a fine book for $35 in a highschool shop class, but does not deserve to share shelf space with books by Smid, Lynch, Valentino, Krar, or Curran.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless Book & Worthless Software
Review: This book, like its' predecessor do an injustice to CNC education. The authors seem to have little if any real life CNC experience, based on the very large amount of programming errors and omissions in this book. i.e. Tapping is never mentioned, Canned Cycle formats are incorrectly desrcibed, radius compensation function is inaccurately applied, etc. etc. Most of the programs in this book would never run on a CNC machine. Try books by Peter Smid, Mike Lynch, or Valentino-Goldenberg for your studies. The simulator software is also useless, though that is expected for such a low price.
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