[Bf-docboard] Proposal for restructuring the user manual

[Campbell Barton]

looks good! some comments inline.

On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 10:28 PM, Greg Zaal <gregzzmail at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, so at the moment this is how the structure looks (with some notes of
> mine below it):
>
> - Getting Started
>    - Introduction
>    - Installation
>    - Basics
>       - Interface
>       - Navigation
>       - Help System
> - Editors (reference for functions in each editor not covered in other
> sections - e.g. layers, outliner usage...)
> - Data System (data blocks, scenes, link/append...)
> - Modeling
>    - Sculpting
> - Physics (particles, smoke, forces...)
> - Modifiers
> - Rigging
>    - Constraints
> - Animation
> - Rendering
>    - Blender Render
>       - Materials
>       - Textures
>       - Lighting
>       - World
>    - Cycles
>       - Materials
>       - Lighting
>       - World
> - Compositing
> - Motion Tracking
> - Video Editing
> - Grease Pencil
> - Game Engine
> - Extending Blender
> - User Preferences
> - Troubleshooting
> - Glossary
>
> (raw - in case you want to edit it)
>
> Notes:
>
> No need to classify things as '2D' - each of those topics could be
> considered 3D by at least some stretch of your imagination anyway (depth
> channels, deep compositing...)
> The "Getting Started" section should be as simple and brief as possible.
> Troubleshooting is it's own thing that shouldn't be needed to start using
> Blender. Same for: Render Engines, User Preferences, Data System, Game
> Engine, Extending Blender - all important info, but you don't *have* to know
> any of that to start using Blender.

Troubleshooting is useful for developers to add to, we often get bug
reports highlighting common misunderstandings & then dont really have
a good place to collect problem->solutions.

This would be handy to link users to from the bug tracker, and link
from within the docs (like having a glossary of common problems).

> As mentioned in my previous mail, Materials/Lighting/Textures/World have
> been moved under Rendering, since those all change based on which engine is
> used.
> Constraints are under Rigging - I think of constraints as a tool for
> rigging, but this is just my opinion.

Its an approximation, but reasonable IMHO. for example you may *rig* a
camera, so constraints are generally useful for rigging on an object
level. even when armatures arent being used.

> Should Import/Export be its own topic? Or under Data System or Extending
> Blender?

Addons have their own wiki pages, eg:
- http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Autodesk_FBX
- http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Wavefront_OBJ

We *could* have an import/export section, but it can be more general
information, and link to the pages for each addon to avoid documenting
a lot of details, no rush for this though, we have enough work getting
the existing manual in shape.

> Cheers,
> Greg

>
>
> On 3 January 2015 at 10:54, Campbell Barton <ideasman42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 12:50 AM, Greg Zaal <gregzzmail at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > We have two currently supported renderers (game engine is it's own thing
>> > imo, and not technically a renderer in the same context):
>> >
>> > Cycles
>> > Blender Render
>> >
>> > Freestyle is not a renderer, rather a post-effect as I understand it (it
>> > works on top of either BI or Cycles renders).
>> >
>> > Currently we have `Materials`, `Textures`, `Lighting` and `World` as
>> > their
>> > own sections - which made sense when BI was the only supported renderer.
>> > However now that Cycles is around, It'd make more sense to me to move
>> > the
>> > materials, textures, lighting and world sections into the folder for
>> > each
>> > renderer. So the structure would be:
>> >
>> > Rendering
>> >
>> > Blender Render
>> >
>> > Materials
>> > Textures
>> > Lighting
>> > World
>> >
>> > Cycles
>> >
>> > Materials
>> > Lighting
>> > World
>> > [no need for a textures folder for Cycles]
>> >
>> > One problem with that is that textures can be used for brushes and
>> > particles
>> > too - should we then add `Textures` folders under those categories as
>> > well?
>> > Or instead keep it as it is currently with `Textures` in the root, and
>> > cover
>> > all the applications (BI/Brushes/Particles...) there?
>> >
>> > Alternatively, since Cycles is technically an external renderer, should
>> > we
>> > remove all Cycles docs from this manual, and instead have them
>> > documented
>> > elsewhere separately?
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > Greg
>>
>> This is an awkward case, especially since Blender-Internal isnt having
>> much development and we may make Cycles default soon.
>>
>> Suggest have 'Render -> Blender Internal', 'Render -> Cycles'
>> sections, as suggested.
>>
>> Brush docs can just link to `Render -> Blender Internal -> Textures`
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-- 
- Campbell