[audiobook] Carpenters - Christmas Portrait Songbook (Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook) by Carpenters in Arts-Photography

Review

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Throw out the other books...By CustomerI have all of the books; being self-taught up until recently. But this one is by a far; far distance better than any others. Every time I pick it up (and I actually enjoy reading it) I get something significant from it. Autodesk basically has a scam to get you to pay almost two hundred an hour to their dealers for training because they give you squat for support; and no old-fashioned manual.Before I bought this I had hit a wall; paid for about a thousand bucks worth of training with a more reasonable dealer out-of-state; got alot out of it; then this book came along. I would advise both the book and the training; as an advanced user. The key is that the dealers are hungry. The small ones will negotiate. You should be paying less. Try Caddcenters of FL over the net. Really good. BTW I get nothing out of saying that. Period. Just want to save you time.But buy the book first!Also; if you are using Autocad anymore; you are wasting your time. Or keep doing it; as Revit passes you by at a hundred miles an hour. Just trying to help.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Lots of information; poorly excecutedBy mskinIm trying to cram on revit before starting a new job. I have 17 years industry experience; so i like how the book discusses in depth problems and strategies for managing a revit based project. The book also goes into great detail about ALL the necessary topics you need to know to get your feet wet; walls; ceilings floors; schedules; families; etc... nothing left unturned (other books seam to leave families and scheduling out). However; the book often tells you to do something; but not how to do it. For instance; they tell you to "add a parameter to an object" - but to do so requires going into a sub menu that takes two google searches and forever to find. Or "model a cube; a triangle and a sphere" but with no instruction on how to do so (i have many years 3d modeling experience and creating these shapes was not initially intuitive). The book also feels poorly sequenced. It starts off with some super complex wall manipulation exercises in chapter 1; but doesnt teach you how to build walls until chapter 16. Regardless; im not disappointing with the purchase as ive learned a ton from the book; but i think i could have found a more effecient learning book. lots of typos too.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. You have to get this book!By Michael AnonuevoAfter I switched to Revit in 2006; I discovered the Sybex Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture (MARA) series. I am one of those who has to have a Revit reference book to refer to from time to time. Whenever I come across a Revit problem; I reach out for my latest MARA edition to find the solution.New to the MARA 2011 edition is the addition of two new authors; Phil Read and James Vandezande. I am a big fan of Phil Read. He writes blogs at [...] and teaches at Autodesk University. Go to his website and youll see the stuff he writes about. He approaches Revit in a totally different way. He comes up with methods and techniques which you would never have thought of. Up to now; his AU session on "Insanely Great Stairs and Railings with Autodesk Revit" is still fresh on my mind.But lets get back to the Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture (MARA) 2011 book. It was one of my joyful moments when I received my copy of MARA 2011 from . My method in digesting an instructional book is to initially read it from cover to cover. This gives me a chance to find out what the book is all about. Then I come back and read certain chapters again (as needed) to absorb the information being given. In my second pass of reading MARA 2011; I tried out some methods and procedures on my computer. I was pleasantly surprised at a lot of new and useful information included in the book. Aside from the usual Revit topics you would expect from this Sybex series; Part 6 (Construction and beyond) included the following chapters:_Chapter 22: Revit in Construction with Laura Handler; Josh Lowe; and Mike Whaley_Chapter 23: Revit in the Classroom with Adam Thomas and Jerome Smith_Chapter 24: Under the Hood with Revit with Dan Rudder_Chapter 25: Direct to Fabrication with Jeffrey McGrew_Chapter 26: Revit for Film and Stage with Bryan Sutton_Chapter 27: Revit in the Cloud with Chris FranceThen you get these gems from the Appendices:_Appendix A: The Bottom Line_Appendix B: Tips; Tricks; and Troubleshooting_Appendix C: The Autodesk Certification ExamsThe information on the new additions alone are worth more than the price of the book! I found the chapters on massing and advanced modeling techniques very useful. There are samples of formula-driven families approached in a different way (using geometry to drive geometry). There are lessons in intuitive massing and formula driven massing. There is a topic on how to approach stairs and railings. Examples are shown and explained. I could go on but its up to you to discover them.Conclusion:I found out 3 weeks before the AU 2010 that the certification exams will be given for free. Since I live in Las Vegas and bought my Revit license from Holmans of Nevada (local Autodesk reseller); they gave me a free one-day pass to the annual AU convention. The MARA 2011 edition is listed as the Autodesk Official Training Guide for Revit Architecture. The book is a couple of inches thick. With a short amount of time left to prepare; I knew it was going to be daunting to go over each and every topic. However; the topics for the exams are listed on Appendix C of the book and so that helped. I reread the book again and concentrated on the exam topics as well as the areas Im weak at.Im happy to say I passed both the Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 Associate and Professional exams. Get the book!