CADDManager on April 19th, 2008

I received a copy of the AutoCAD 2009 Fundamentals by Ascent Center for Technical Knowledge (www.ascented.com) and was quickly impressed with the exhaustive level of information provided in the book.

This is a training workbook with 19 chapters of instruction with 684 pages of information. The extensive level of detail provided makes the book almost 3 inches thick. There is an accompanying Instructors Manual that explains how to use the curriculum and offers a breakdown of instructive sessions.

The Preface to the book lets you know that you could use if for a 3 day course and an additional 2 day course. The 3 day curriculum covers the “indispensable core topics” and the 2 day course adds the “more sophisticated techniques that extend your mastery of the program.”

All of the cursory topics are covered: Interface, Getting Started, Drawing and Editing, Creating Simple Drawings and Drawing with Precision. It moves to making edits, Layers, Advanced Object types and adds Drawing Organization and Information.

To assist those who have “been there, done that” in prior releases, there are flags that identify “New in 2009” and “Enhanced Commands”.

Extensive screen shots illustrate just about every page of the Student Guide. These assist the user by actually showing what they are to do, every step of the way.

This Student Guide is used by many resellers when they provide training. Some of the take advantage of Ascents Custom Curriculum to provide branded copies of Ascent materials. So you may have seen this material before.

I have used Ascent material and find it easy to use. They provide a review quiz at the end of each chapter and also a Command Summary that makes for quick reference once you have completed the coursework. It also includes step by step practice pages that can be completed in short time. The included CD of data sets is a major plus.

All in all – this material is solid and has stood the test of time (Ascent has been around a while). You should purchase at least one copy of this material just to see how it may bolster your training efforts.  If you are looking for project based training material that takes you from a blank sheet to a completed project, this may not be what you need.  But if you are looking for a good systematic presentation of the commands and techniques – you found it.

I highly recommend this material.

lightcycle2.giflightcycle2.giflightcycle2.giflightcycle2.gif

C M J Rating – 4 out of 5 TRON Light Cycles

Leave a Reply