About the Author
Bill Fane is a recovering doorknob designer. He was a product engineer and then product engineering manager for Weiser Lock in Vancouver, Canada, for 27 years and holds 12 U.S. patents. He has been using AutoCAD for design work since Version 2.17g (1986) and Inventor since version 1.0 beta (1996). He is a retired professional engineer and an Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC) certified instructor.
He began teaching mechanical design in 1996 at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Vancouver, including such courses as AutoCAD, Mechanical Desktop, Inventor, SolidWorks, machine design, term projects, manufacturing processes, and design procedures. His son Trevor was one of his students. Bill retired from this position in 2008.
He lectured on a wide range of AutoCAD and Inventor subjects at Autodesk University from 1995 to 2012, and at Destination Desktop from 2003 to 2009. He was the AUGI CAD Camp National Team instructor for the manufacturing track between 2008 and 2011. He has written over 220 “The Learning Curve” columns for CADalyst magazine since 1986 and claims to be a close personal friend of Captain LearnCurve. He has also written engineering software product reviews for CADalyst, Design Product News, and Machine Design.
In his spare time he skis, water-skis, scuba dives, sails a Hobie Cat, drives his ’37 Rolls-Royce limousine or his wife’s ’89 Bentley Turbo R, travels extensively with his wife, and plays with his grandchildren.
Dedication
Last time around I dedicated that edition to Bev, my dear wife of 52 years, and to our grandchildren, Rebecca, Bryan, and Brodie. Our daughter Joanne and her husband Rod then complained that they had been left out, so they are hereby included. Our latest grandson, Jack, was born tomorrow. It was July 13 in Vancouver but July 14 in Adelaide, Australia, where our son Trevor and wife Jenn were living at the time.
Author’s Acknowledgments
At Wiley, Acquisitions Editor Steven Hayes was instrumental in getting this edition underway. It was a pleasure to work with project editor Susan Pink, who made sure all the i’s were crossed and all the t’s were dotted (or something like that). And thanks, finally, to Ralph Grabowski, who did his usual sterling job of tech editing.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Acquisitions Editor: Steven Hayes
Project Editor: Susan Pink
Copy Editor: Susan Pink
Technical Editor: Ralph Grabowski
Proofreader: Debbye Butler
Editorial Assistant: Matthew Lowe
Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case
Production Editor: Siddique Shaik
Cover Image: © Socha/Getty Images