Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal appearing on the cover of AutoCAD 2000 in a Nutshell is an elk (Cervus elaphus), or wapiti. Elk populations were once distributed throughout North America, but they are now found only in the western United States from Canada to New Mexico and in parts of Michigan.

The elk is one of the largest members of the deer family. Males can weigh as much as 450 kg and stand 1.5 meters tall. They have long heads and strong, symmetrical antlers that grow as wide as 1.5 meters from tip to tip. A full-grown male usually has 12 points per antler. A long, dark mane covers the neck and chest area.

Elk prefer semi-open woodlands to dense forests. In summertime, they move up into the mountains, where they feed on grasses and wildflowers. In the winter months, they descend to the valleys where they eat what grass and woody growths they can find. They browse for food in the morning and evening and are mostly inactive during the day. Elk are social animals, living in matriarchal herds of up to 400 animals. In mating season, bulls join the herd, and their loud mating bugle, compared by some to a yodel, can be heard echoing in the mountains. Elk are the noisiest of all deer, from the time they¹re born and issue their first bleat. Outside of mating season, bulls are gentle and nonaggressive to other elk.

As stated earlier, elk were once widely distributed throughout North America. Their population was greatly diminished by a combination of hunting and increased land cultivation, which disturbed their habitat. The eastern subspecies Cervus elaphus canadensis is now extinct. Elk have no special conservation status, but limits on hunting and the efforts of individuals and government agencies have led to increases in the elk population and they are not considered to be in danger. Melanie Wang was the production editor and proofreader for AutoCAD 2000 in a Nutshell; Norma Emory was the copyeditor; and Madeleine Newell and Jeff Liggett provided quality control. Judy Hoer, Maeve O'Meara, Anna Snow, and Abigail Myers provided production support. Mike Sierra provided FrameMaker technical support. Brenda Miller wrote the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving. Kathleen Wilson produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 3.32 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

Alicia Cech designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Mike Sierra implemented the design in FrameMaker 5.5.6. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Megan Morahan using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary.

Whenever possible, our books use RepKover™, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKover™'s limit, perfect binding is used.