TUTORIAL

Pro/ENGINEER Tutorial Wildfire 4.0 and MultiMedia CD
$59.95
I'm an Engineer that's not 100% intuitive. Most of the time, I really have to work at it to succeed, so for all those people who pick up this book and got everything in it on their first try, this review is not for you. Proe isn't a really easy program to use at all!!! I tried the tutorials given with the program and forums, but they're not really helpful. This book really helps people to get a firm foundation of the program and with each lesson helps you get more and more comfortable with manipulating parts and making assemblies. However, there are some parts of this book where the author clearly hasn't checked his statements or if he had mentioned something earlier, you would be saved hours of agony and frustration. I would sit there for hours on a lesson trying to figure out how to reproduce the same patterns in his book only to discover a much simpler way to do it in later lessons, or the fact that he left out some critical part to the lesson which you may never get unless you figure it out on your own. However, for the beginner who's trying to break in this is a good book. It still has a long way to go in terms of clarity though.

The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference
$79.99
The paper quality of the book is bad.
I read 120 pages so far and like the tutorial style.

The Java Tutorial: A Short Course on the Basics, 4th Edition
$54.99
This book is basically just the online tutorials, but it is much much easier to go through them in book form. I found the book easy to read and a helpful reference to flip through. It includes a CD which contains an only slightly out of date Java 6.x and all the trimmings, plus the tutorials and source code for the example. Better to get a new Java from Sun if you are seriously going to use the language, but the one on the CD should be good enough to experiment with.

SolidWorks 2009 Tutorial with MultiMedia CD
$69.95
I'm a part time Adjunct Instructor at a large community college (120 students/semester ) teaching SolidWorks with some Engineering Graphics. I've reviewed an assortment of Engineering design books with SolidWorks - and I found this GEM! Thank you!!!

First, the book provides a multi-media CD. This is a real plus in any book. The multi-media CD provides instructional material on the SolidWorks user interface - along with the ability to create 2d sketches, 3d models, 2d drawings, 3d assemblies, etc.

Second, the book layout provides a simple (but very complete) step-by-step procedure / instruction on features, sketches, drawing, design intent, etc. with numerous illustration. This is great for a large class of students with diverse skill sets and various passions for Engineering graphics using SolidWorks.

Third, the instructor .ppt presentations and models are great for classroom usage. Access to these models and .ppt presentations saves me a lot of time in labs and lectures. PS: The bonus section for the CSWA certification exam is great to get students excided about design and CAD at the next level.