The days of the professional draughtsperson slaving over a drawing board are now ancient history with the arrival of Computer Aided Design. CAD has revolutionised the design and engineering industries offering an easy, accurate, high-tech alternative to traditional drawing techniques. Autocad 14 in Easy Steps is a beginners guide to understanding the ins and outs of this undoubtedly powerful, but sometimes overly complex, drawing tool. The early chapters ease the reader gently through the basics, starting with the creation and sizing of documents through to drawing simple shapes and using different types of co- ordinates. Comprehensive throughout, the book offers time-saving methods for using many of the program"s features from the basic to the more advanced, with the section detailing isometric drawing and viewports proving especially interesting. Also worth a mention is the chapter detailing dimensioning, perhaps one of the most important facets of the entire package. Once your confidence has increased a bit you can have a crack at creating wireframe models and rendering them complete with surface textures and multiple light sources. Autocad 14 in Easy Steps won"t teach you design skills but it does offer a cheap, easy-to-understand way to realise your ideas on screen. --Steve Russell