Customer Reviews

AutoCAD: Secrets Every User Should Know

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great guide for everyday users. The chapter on Paper Space and Model Space alone is worth the price (very reasonable) of this book. The author has a friendly style, excellent examples, and great puzzlers at the end of the book. Most AutoCAD books are either "tips" books or "how to" books. This one is for people who already know and use the software. I attended one of Dan's presentations at AutoDesk University, and the book is just as great as his workshops. Thanks Dan!!!

This book is a great source of tips and guidelines for any AutoCAD user, beginner or experienced. Dan's thorough explanation of the tabs and settings in the Options menu along with the recommendations for settings is worth the price of the book. The chapters on scripts and LISP will help anyone new to customization to start getting a grasp of how to use these tools to get AutoCAD to do be a more productive tool in their particular work environment.

I've been a user of AutoCAD since release 10 (1991), at one time I used to purchase 2 to 4 reference books per AutoCAD release. I have not purchased a book on AutoCAD since AutoCAD 2000. Until now. Mr. Abbott's book is by far the best AutoCAD Productivity book on the market! If you have had formal or informal training for AutoCAD, or are a seasoned user of AutoCAD, get this book! Although Mr. Abbott packs this book full of real-world tips and tricks and enough examples to give one a good jump-start with customizing AutoCAD, my enthusiasm for this book is based on the fact that Mr. Abbott explains how and why AutoCAD works without being geeky. "AutoCAD: Secrets Every User Should Know", is a well written reference and tutorial book which will not become obsolete with the next release of AutoCAD.

I've been using AutoCAD for many years and have seen many books rehash the same old stuff.
This book addresses Autocad from a user standpoint, written by someone who not only completely understands AutoCAD but also knows how it's used in the real world.
A "must-have" for all AutoCAD users.

This is the first CAD book that I have bought in years (using AutoCAD since release 2.5), this book is a must have for anyone using AutoCAD. This is not a command reference guide, it truly shows you how to use the software through best practices, customization, automation and programming. It is a comprehensive book filled with tips, tricks, pitfalls, and examples. Mr. Abbott has brought together enough productivity tips for the user that the book will pay for itself through increased productivity.

The index is a great resource for those in the world who were thrown into CAD with no formal training, like myself. To have this reference handy next to our company CAD station has been a budget saver, eliminating the fumbling and guessing that historically took place for our projects. Not only that, but the primary proofreader of the book, Paul, is a fantastic resource for nit-picky questions that I inevitably run across in my projects.

Thanks Dan.

AutoCAD Secrets every User should know is a fantastic Book.It helps me in my CAD Life.My favorite Chapters are Why Dos isnt dead yet and Chapter 7 AutoCAD Scripts.The Book has improved my productivity, and has enlarged my time off,making my Job easier.AutoCAD Secrets is written in a nice and understandable way.I hope that Dan Abbott writes another Book soon.

Thank You

Jose De Jesus

This is a great book for long time AutoCAD users who haven't found time to keep up on the newer features. I work in 2D but wanted to gain some 3D experience. The tutorial in chapter 10 was the first time I was able to work in 3D without wanting to throw my PC through a plate glass window. As a non-programmer the sections on scripts and lisp routines have allowed me to write simple programs that eliminate repetitive tasks. And chapter 3 has taught me the value of tool palettes, which I never used before but gets daily usage now. My only knock on this book is that it could have had a bit more on dynamic blocks. I've had this book a couple of years now, even with some newer books on the shelf; I still end up reaching for this one.

There are plenty of general AutoCAD programmer's guides on the market and most offer a solid set of the basics plus some customization tips and techniques - but few offer up the depth of AUTOCAD SECRETS EVERY USER SHOULD KNOW, which focuses on tricks of the trade even many veterans don't know. Here are tips on applying graphics standards, leveraging 3D, changing thousands of drawings using scripts and batch files, and much more. Chapters even cover DOS functions. And to test all this newfound knowledge, a concluding chapter AutoCAD Puzzlers offers real-world challenges to test new user skills. Any AutoCAD user needs this.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This was an excellent book, I have been using AutoCAD for around 10 years now and I found that reading this book opened my eyes to a few things I didnt know at all, and it reopened them to things I had forgotten about. If you are like me and havent looked at an AutoCAD book/manual in the past few years take a look at this one it will quite possibly amaze you with the simple things that you arent doing in AutoCAD but should be.