The Survivor's Guide to MicrStation J is the idea that started this whole publishing endeavor. The idea is to present not only the technical aspects of the product, but also the Why's and Wherefore's of what's going on. The emphasis is on useful approaches and tools -- not clobbering the reader with every single thing the product is capable of. In addition, the delivery is intentionally lighthearted -- fun, concise education, including real-world tips & tricks (many of them undocumented!). Bubba, who you won't forget, shows up to help out, too.

AccuDraw is something that's been rolling around in Rob Brown's (the primary author of the tool) head for more than four years. Luckily, Keith has been cheering Rob on the whole time. The idea behind this book is to not just provide a what-the-heck-is-this-thing sort of book. Rather, it provides you the background and insight needed for really making this tool take off. You see, ADraw is a well written little guy, but it does require some rather new thinking to make the most of it. The book spends 65% of the time buiding things in 2D, and then take the concepts into 3D. (You're not going to believe what ADraw does for working in 3D!) There's also coverage of the Pop-Up Calculator -- some technology that resulted from the continuing development of ADraw. Check it out. AccuDraw is seriously cool.

This one's a fun book. It maintains the design of the Series to boldly go where no man (um, wrong series). The Survivor's Guide Series is designed to provide a structured approach to learning, while at the same time providing clear and useful coverage of the major functional pieces of MicroStation that happen to be being covered.) Beyond that, though, this book provides practical application examples and ideas -- what works, what doesn't (and if it doesn't, what can be done about it.) There's background material, as well as all sorts of un-documented stuff. It's good stuff.

The idea here was for a ground-up approach. What the heck is this Basic stuff, and what does it all mean to me!!! Same sorts of Survivor's Guide kind of principles -- what works, what doesn't, and so on -- as well as a structured approach beyond the Macro side of the fence, into programming this stuff for yourself. A bonus with the book is that the primary voice is that of none other than Bill Patterson -- known to be a rather wild and crazy sort of individual. He provides a pleasant and useful ride -- after all, he's just trying to get this Basic stuff to work for his job up yonder in New Jersey. Give Bill a try. You'll be glad you did.

John has been doing these Reference Guides for quite a while (there another one later for PowerDraft). This thing is much more than just a "Quick Ref" guide. John adds his nearly 200 years (well, actually, more like 20) experience into a "keep this thing chained to my desk and don't let anyone borrow it" sort of tool. Things are cross referenced with all nature of useful ideas and tips (as well as pointing out where the land mines are).

This is one of my favorites. This book promotes the idea behind the "To the Max" series -- comprehensively cover a topic, with the underlying goal of making the reader more comfortable/competent in the end. In the Magic book, though, there's a bit of a twist. I wanted to see if folks could learn stuff under the guise of having a bit of fun. There are all sorts of things happening in here (useful tips, "stoopid" tricks, dirty tricks, really dirty tricks, and more...) You'll end up learning a good bit, in spite of yourself. Bottom line, though, is that you'll more fully understand the mechanics of how MicroStation does business (which is a good thing).

The Selection Sets book is a quick read, and covers the ins and outs of Element Selection facility (a highly under-used part of MicroStation). The intent here is to clearly document how this tool can be put to work (and believe me, there is a whole lot more going on here than meets the delivered docs.) This one is a known productivity booster.

An Expert Guide To Unlocking Draft's Tools, Settings and Controls, this one does for PowerDraft what John's Reference does for MicroStation. What a concept!

This guy was the first to take on the brave new world of Workspaces and Customization and actually make sense of it all. Written for both administrators and "normal" people, you will find the "what," "where," "why," "when," and "how" of these cool facilities. If you need to know what's up in the world of the MicroStation User Interface, this is the place!

The book that started it all. This is the first in the Survivor's Guide Series. It is designed to help make the move to MicroStation V5. This book sets the style of what has developed into Adage's casual and informative method of delivery.

When MicroStation Version 5 shipped, there was a little bit of a problem with how the as-delivered documentation handled their indices. You see, one would point you to a reference in another, you'd go there, and it would point you some place else (or worse, right back to where you began!). This book provides a comprehensive cross-reference for both MicroStation and MDL docs. Also, and probably even of primary use, is that the book also includes a complete Command List (including all the "hidden" commands).