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Summary: Inside Solidworks
Review: Auther David Murray would do well to stop proliferating poor quality books. After a $60 investment and several hours of my life, many essentail features of solidworks, like surfaces, are still a mystery. As a result, I am here again looking for answers in yet another book. Luckily Amazon is now selling used books:) I won't need this one any more
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Summary: A few quick words on the origin of Inside SolidWorks
Review: Being the Training Manager at a computer aided design and network solution provider in central New York has given me a unique opportunity. My profession allows me to see how many of the various manufacturing firms in this region design, prototype and manufacture a huge variety of parts and assemblies. I'll always jump at the opportunity to take a tour of the factory or manufacturing processes at a facility where I may be teaching. There are indeed many ways to create the objects we take for granted in our everyday lives. My profession has exposed me to a range of products that run from pharmacological equipment to train cars and everything in between.Another aspect of being in my particular position is that I hear the questions most commonly on the minds of the students learning computer aided design software (in particular, SolidWorks). I also hear the many problems that designers face during both the design and manufacturing phases of the creation process. My desire has been to gather up all of this information and put it together in an easy to read and understandable text. Inside SolidWorks is a result of this effort. Inside SolidWorks not only gives you detailed instructions on how to carry out specific commands, it digs right into the mindset and the thinking involved while working in the SolidWorks design environment. Examples and exercises exist throughout the book that center on typical manufacturing techniques, including castings, turned parts, injection molding, sheet metal, assemblies, drawings, and much more. In addition, there are valuable summaries and a "Questions and Topics for Discussion" section at the end of each chapter that will drive home the main topics in each chapter. The CD-ROM included with Inside SolidWorks contains five additional chapters covering advanced topics. Additionally, all of the SolidWorks documents used as examples in the book are included, along with the SolidWorks Viewer that will allow readers with computers to view the files even if they don't have access to the SolidWorks software. Whether you are totally new to SolidWorks, or are a current user looking to further develope your skills, Inside SolidWorks is the book for you.
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Summary: Inside SolidWorks 2003
Review: Engineers are lousy authors. David Murray is an engineer. He may be a great teacher in front of a classroom - where he has the opportunity to explain and illustrate his point in great detail - but he does not get the job done in a book. After working through this book it appears to me to be an update of an earlier version. My guess is that he has done little more than change the name to address the 2003 version of SolidWorks. His motive? Sell more books! Furthermore, Mr. Murray glosses over over how to accomplish the more difficult tasks in SolidWorks - but is effusive and wordy when it comes the subject of CAD/CAM and simple SolidWorks operations. Take for example lofted parts. After having beat the relatively simple operations of sweeps and revolved parts into oblivion, he leaves the reader out to dry when it comes to lofted parts. If you cannot figure lofting out for yourself using the SolidWorks Help files, the reader is dead in the water. Bottom line, my take is that this book is a unsophisticated attempt to bleed as much profit as possible from a much earlier work. Don't count on it to carry you through the more difficult aspects of using SolidWorks for 3D applications.
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Summary: A Reader who is not happy from Sunny California
Review: I bought his 2001 book and it was OK. I read his reviews and they were not too bad. This is not a SolidWorks 200 book. It doe s not cover the new features that are incorporated into the new release. A big disappointment with the book, like most SolidWorks book is that it almost completely sidesteps the most challenging and potentially rewarding part of using the software: building parts in the context of an assembly (what is often called the 'top down' method). An extra chapter on 'in context relationships', good modeling practices when building parts from inside assemblies, and a good introduction on how parametric relationships can make or destroy your parts would have made this a much better book. Every user who builds from the top down knows the crushing pain of moving a component in an assembly and seeing the feature trees of some or all of his/her components turn red with rebuild errors. I do not recommend this book, unless you are using a very old version of SolidWorks. I now know why I received a 30% discount. You get what you pay for!!
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Summary: So Far looks Good
Review: I don't know what axe the poor reviewers were grinding but i find this book on a quick browse to be extremely helpful. The others who panned the book were obviously looking for someone to hold their hand through each and every step. I tried the Planchard book and while still useful neglects guiding you into shortcuts(enter key instead of mouse click; ctrl+c=copy, etc.) Shortcutting is key to progressing and I am already ahead of the tutorials in Planchards. I bought Solidworks 2003 after reading the authors web post regarding misrepresentation of his book on Amazon. He was right on. I fully recommend this book and will update my review when I have finished it.
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Summary: No way!
Review: I have read a few CAD instructional books and manuals, and this is one of the worst books/manuals that I have seen. The way the book provides the information, it is very confusing to the new user. The author expects that the user knows the software. If this were true, I would not require a book!! The book is of low quality. The command structure is hard to follow. I read one review on this book that state, " Hey, serious CAD users out here want a lot more information". I agree, yes and not. If you have a lot of information, take the time to explain it to the new user. Just don't blow by the new user and address the advance user. I would not recommend this book.
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Summary: Not even for free
Review: I obtained a copy of this book for free. I read the reviews:
"This book is full of errors when it comes to SolidWorks 2003". "One feels the author was too lazy to create a real world set of examples and instead loves to hear himself expound on his CAD knowledge (which sadly is very faulty)". "Why do people buy a book like this"? But, it was free. I know now why the person gave me the book... It was not worth the time I spent looking through it. Do not make the same mistake I did. This was not a helpful or useful book.
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Summary: Not even for free
Review: I obtained a copy of this book for free. I read the reviews:
"This book is full of errors when it comes to SolidWorks 2003". "One feels the author was too lazy to create a real world set of examples and instead loves to hear himself expound on his CAD knowledge (which sadly is very faulty)". "Why do people buy a book like this"? But, it was free. I know now why the person gave me the book... It was not worth the time I spent looking through it. Do not make the same mistake I did. This was not a helpful or useful book.
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Summary: I can only give it 5 stars? It deserves many more...
Review: I really don't get these reviews, and I honestly suspect theres some foul play involved because there is no way so many people can be so absolutely clueless.
This book couldn't be any more clear, concise and spot on. I just don't think I could say it any better than that. When starting Inside SolidWorks 2003, I had very little background in any CAD system. I had learned a little bit from SolidWorks' built-in tutorials, but they cover the very basics, and I kept getting stuck.
I decided it was time to look for a book. Inside SolidWorks 2003 was the first book I looked at on Amazon.com, but seeing the 2 1/2 stars, I felt uncomfortable spending $50 on it. So I went looking some more but didn't find any other books that really looked any better.
So I came back to Inside SolidWorks 2003 and read the reviews...and realized they didn't exactly add up. None of the reviews really had any reliable content, they were all written with the same 'attitude' (though not necessarily the same person), and the positive reviews completely contradicted what they were saying. They just didn't add up.
I figured, what the heck, I'll give it a shot. Many of the negetive reviews didn't appear legitimate to me... And boy do I know I was right.
Being extremely ready to jump right in, I had the book shipped Next Day Air and got it the next morning, took it home, and got reading. Even though I'd figured out a lot of stuff from just messing around with the software, the first 150 pages covered everything in good detail (without getting TOO detailed and complicating things), and while I had figured some of the initial content out already, I learned that I had missed numerous very helpful things...things that the book quickly taught me.
This is the best software book I've ever read, by far. I can't even begin to express how happy I am with it. I believe it would even be appropriate for people who don't have much computer experience at all, since the author covers some basic Windows GUI techniques that are built into SolidWorks.
Seriously, if you're looking for a book to get you up to speed on SolidWorks, this is probably the best book you could buy. I can't even begin to share all of the things I have learned in the past couple weeks.
Go read the negetive reviews for yourself, and see if they strike you as if something is amiss. I'm glad I came back and gave Inside SolidWorks 2003 a second chance.
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Summary: Inside Solidworks by David Murray
Review: I think I've had a look at all the Solidworks books available.
I think this is by far the best. Well thought out and well layed out. In general, very helpful.
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