Write an article ''BRL-CAD for Newbies''

Write an article ''BRL-CAD for Newbies''BRL-CAD

Status: ClosedTime to complete: 72 hrs Mentors: SeanTags:

Although BRL-CAD has extensive documentation, still it needs a short and simple document (one or two pages) which particularly targets new users.

This task involves writing a article named '''BRL-CAD for newbies'''. This article should start with the installation process, providing links to any relevant existing installation documentation. The main motive of this article to empower the new user to make his/her first model using BRL-CAD. Be sure to use simplistic introductory language and if you need to mention some technical term, first explain that term.

The output of this task can be a pdf, html, doc, odt or any other document file that contains this article. See the reference links provided. Use screenshots and/or images to make it look attractive so that the reader is not bored.

References:

http://brlcad.org/wiki/Documentation

Uploaded Work

File name/URL	File size	Date submitted
BRL-CAD for Newbies.docx	287.4 KB	November 26 2013 04:29 UTC
BRL-CAD for Newbies Revision.docx	603.1 KB	November 26 2013 07:21 UTC
BRL-CAD for Newbies Final.docx	861.3 KB	November 27 2013 02:07 UTC

Comments

Cameronon November 25 2013 05:41 UTCTask Claimed

I would like to work on this task.

Mandeep Kaur on November 25 2013 05:49 UTCTask Assigned

This task has been assigned to Cameron. You have 72 hours to complete this task, good luck!

Cameronon November 25 2013 06:29 UTCShould I write the guide on Archer on MGED?

I was just wondering because I am more accostomed to Archer, but if you want me to write about MGED I can.

Cameronon November 26 2013 05:27 UTCReady for review

The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.

Sean on November 26 2013 06:20 UTCTask Needs More Work

One of the mentors has sent this task back for more work. Talk to the mentor(s) assigned to this task to satisfy the requirements needed to complete this task, submit your work again and mark the task as complete once you re-submit your work.

Sean on November 26 2013 06:23 UTCstarted out good

Started out good with screenshots of the website, but then when you got to your modeling section, you literally provided a solid wall of text. Nobody wants to read a page of text like that. Include more images throughout your article that visually depict what you're talking about. You've written the article like a tutorial so you either need to include a lot more images (easy) or reword the article to not sound like a tutorial (hard).

Cameronon November 26 2013 07:08 UTCGot it

Thanks for the feedback

Cameronon November 26 2013 07:21 UTCReady for review

The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.

Sean on November 26 2013 15:15 UTClooking a lot better

That's looking a LOT better Cameron. This is going to be fantastic. Reading through the article, a few issues jump out that will be a problem if someone is trying to follow along.

First specify the name of both the sphere and the cube as "name". If they try to "make name sph" followed by "make name arb8", they're going to get an error that name already exists. I suggest either introducing how to delete and kill an object prior to talking about how to create an arb8 or give them both different names that make sense (like ball and box).

Other issues I see:

After "step 4" when you choose you're operating system, you will not have installed BRL-CAD. You will have downloaded BRL-CAD. Step 5 would be to install it.

You say they need to search for "MGED", but the name is "mged" on the command line. Perhaps tell them to search for the MGED application in their GUI or the mged binary on a command-line.

You tell them to run "make name arb8" but how did you know to type arb8? More importantly, how could they find out that arb8 is one of the object types that can be created? What are the others?

I suggest adding one boolean operation, a combination. Maybe have them union a sphere with some other shape (Use c, g, or comb command).

I suggest adding one raytrace operation, tell them to run "rt" and show the window.

Already mentioned using "name" for both objects.

Put your name in there somewhere (by ...), so others know you wrote this. ;)

Finally, please have someone else proof-read your write-up as there are a few grammatical mistakes (e.g, then vs. than). This is turning into a great introduction that will get used by many, so it's important to make sure it's ready to be used. We'll create a follow-on task that you or someone else can use to add it to our wiki. Look forward to seeing the updates!

Sean on November 26 2013 15:27 UTCfollow-on

A follow-on task to this one has been added: http://www.google-melange.com/gci/task/view/google/gci2013/5860376709169152

Sean on November 27 2013 06:18 UTCTask Closed

Congratulations, this task has been completed successfully.