Documentation Strategy

[optigon]

All you really need to know about Wings 3d

If someone wants to learn to use Wings where do they start?

The Official Manual is sadly out of date and the main problem with writing a new one is that Wings 3d is a moving target.

I've thought about the problem for a long time and the best solution in my opinion is to write a General Overview on how to use Wings 3D.
The other options are:

1. An exhaustive list of features and options going command by command and feature by feature.
   
2. A series of modeling tutorials that show a user how to make something.
   

Also there is the question of medium.
The two most common contenders these days are:

1. Video
   
2. Text plus images
   

Videos are great and can be easy to learn from but keeping video documentation current is hard work. If a feature or workflow changes, then the video has to be reshot or edited to maintain its authority. For this reason video documentation is better for static projects where procedures are unlikely to change.

Wings is a dynamic project at its periphery and slightly more stable at its core, but still too much of a moving target to officially adopt a reliance on video documentation.
Text documentation, on the other hand, can be edited quite quickly and can have sections inserted or deleted without having to rewrite everything. The main issue with a text document is it initial production. Writing a long technical manual is a difficult task. A successful manual depends on an agile content strategy. I don't think an exhaustive feature by feature list is the way to go. So I suggest an overview approach.

The advantage of an overview approach to a technical manual for Wings, is that it highlights the important aspects and general philosophy of how to use Wings. Instead of trying to describe every single feature of Wings, an overview would focus on the methodology of wings by describing a selection of key features. The goal of the documentation would be to engender the user with all they need to know to figure out the rest on their own.

An over view approach is easier to maintain and much shorter than an a feature by feature manual, though it would compliment and lend context to a feature by feature manual if one were to be constructed synchronously.

Here is an outline of what I've come up with. Just wondering what people think of this approach.

General Overview

1. Subdivision Modeling
   
2. Make a Cube
   
3. Using the Camera
   • Rotate
     
   • Pan
     
   • Zoom
     
   • Aiming the Camera
     
   • Viewing Along an Axis
     
4. Viewing Modes
   • Smoothed Preview
     
   • Wireframe
     
   • Orthographic
     
5. Selection Basics
   • Selection Modes
     
   • Mouse Selection and Deselection
     
   • Deselect Using the Spacebar
     
   • Bounding Box Selection
     
   • Increase and Decrease Selection
     
   • Edge Loops and Rings
     
6. Basic Commands
   • Move, Rotate, and Scale
     
   • Extrude
     
   • Smooth
     
   • Cut
     
   • Connect
     
   • Bridge
     
7. Advanced Selections
   • Infoline
     
   • Secondary Selections
     
   • Move Along Vector
     
   • Rotate Around User Defined Centre
     
   • Magnets
     
8. Advanced Commands
   • Flatten
     
   • Intersect
     
   • Bend
     
   • Circularise
     
9. Advanced Features
   • Virtual Mirror
     
   • Tweak
     
   • Sculpt
     
   • Magnet Mask
     
   • AutoUV
     
10. 3D Coordinate System Basics
    • Axes
      
    • Coordinates
      
    • Points
      
    • Vectors
      
    • Planes
      
    • Normals
      

In addition, none of these headings would be dsicussed exhaustively. Just enough info to figure it out. So for those familiar with the doc I wrote for Tweak on the website -- that is too much info and at best, could be added as a link towards the end of a much briefer summary.