Google Season of Docs/2019

A Beginner’s Guide to BRL-CAD

Project description

This project aims at introducing students to the world of BRL-CAD. It is a beginner’s guide so the main focus is on making the reader familiar with this software and getting them started. The project is a step by step tutorial to model a chess set. Since the target audience is high school students, therefore, this project makes sure the students are well-fed with the required information and keeping it simple at the same time.

Results

Here's the documentation produced under the 2019 Google Season of Docs:

Beginner's guide to BRL-CAD

Summary of the current state of the project

Currently, the project provides complete documentation to model a chess set. It introduces the new users to the BRL-CAD software and helps them successfully model a chessboard and the chess pieces: Rook, King, Queen, Pawn, Bishop, Knight. The next steps are the preparation of the document in the Docbook/XML format so the PDF and HTML forms can be auto-generated and keep it up to date with development changes.

A list of challenges and learning

1. BRL-CAD requires a lot of practice to master. I modeled a lot of shapes to understand the commands so that I can explain them in an easier manner.
2. Modeling BRL-CAD changed the way I look at designs.
3. The major challenge I faced was when I tried to model the chessboard and the first chess piece pawn. Mentors helped me improve and then I could model any piece in very less time.
4. Another challenge I faced was to explain the measurements and dimensions in an easier fashion so that the readers don’t leave confused.
5. I learned a lot about keeping your readers in mind while writing the doc which is one of the key ingredients for writing anything. I learned this by looking at my mentors.