CATIA V5 Workbook, Releases 8 and 9

I used this book to learn the basics of Catia V5. It does the job in a nice fashion. It covers also some more advanced topics, giving enough information to move to more complete and detailed manuals. It's a no frills book, getting you the right information and hands on exercises. I recommend it to every beginner who wants to move to an intermediate level.

I bought this book because I wanted to learn CATIA and the reviews of Mr. Cozzens other books were high.The title says "Releases 10 & 11". I used the book on CATIA Release 12 and it was exactly identical.This book is actually a tutorial that guides people who have never used CATIA before. All the lessons are step-by-step instructions that show you how to draw a certain sketche or part. (Click on that icon, Select this and that option, etc...). In addition to that almost every step is accompanied by a black & white figure that shows everything, so there is very little confusion in the process.There are examples at the end of each chapter that are good practice for the concepts learned in each chapter.This book is not a reference book. CATIA is a huge program with tons of toolbars. Although he does describe each toolbar briefly, in his step-by-step instructions he uses only the most commonly used features, so don't think that you will be able to look up anything you want like in a reference book.It is also not a flawless book. I did find a few errors here and there but they were not big and did not cause any major confusions. I was usually able to figure out what he was trying to do in a short time.The bottom line is, If you don't know CATIA, get this book. It's an excellent starting point.