This book presents a coherent description of the theoretical and practical aspects of coloured Petri nets (CP-nets). It shows how CP-nets have been developed, from being a promising theoretical model to being a full-fledged language for the design, specification, simulation, validation and implementation of large software systems. The book contains the formal definition of CP-nets and the mathematical theory behind their analysis methods. The book is also intended to attract readers who are more interested in applications than in the underlying mathematics, and a large part of the book is written in a style which is closer to an engineering textbook or a user manual than a typical textbook in theoretical computer science. The book consists of three separate volumes. The first volume defines the net model and the basic concepts. It gives a detailed presentation of many small examples and a brief overview ofsome industrial applications. It introduces the formal analysis methods. Finally, it contains a description of a set of CP-net tools which support the practical use of CP-nets. Most of the material in this volume is application oriented. Its purpose is to teach the reader how to construct CP-net models and analyse them by means of simulation.