Developers' Bulletin

11/12/13
Highlights: Page Names, Introduction to templates, Introduction to standards, Infobox standard, User accounts

IMPORTANT NOTICES
This bulletin applies to all fall/summer 2013 capstone design teams. All teams are required to conform to all parts of this bulletin!

Please also note, there have been two help pages added. Help:Standards (See below) and Help:Capstone_Design which gives guidelines for content and formatting.

Page Names
Unfortunately most page names need to be changed. See below guidelines for naming:
 * page names should be the descriptive
 * If the project has a descriptive name that can be refereed to in an acronym, spell out the name fully, then put the acronym in parenthesis
 * Example: Security Enhanced Mobile Operating System (SEMOS) is a valid page name
 * the name of your page should absolutely not be your team name.
 * Example: FHSAE Voltz N Boltz is not acceptable
 * names should be distinctive enough distinguish from other/previous projects.
 * projects that are on-going (formula, snowmobile, tensegrity, etc.) need to be especially aware of this
 * Do Not Camel Case You Page Name (unless part of acronym) - Instead capitalize the first letter in the name, as well as any nouns.
 * make sure the name is descriptive enough to provide results from a search.
 * check for pages that are similar in name, use dates, manufacture, type of application, etc to distinguish between two similar pages.

All names must be approved by Dr. Beyerlein. Please get your name approved by Wednesday (11/6/2013) C.O.B. In order to change the name of you page you must: #REDIRECT Your new page name
 * 1) create a new page with the approved title
 * 2) copy all content from old page to new page
 * 3) delete content from old page
 * 4) add the following line of code to the old page:

Introduction to templates
Templates are used to automatically to call wiki code and may include inputs. Templates ease development know-how, reduce time to build structured content, and provide an easy way to set up standard content. You will not be creating templates, only calling templates created by admins. If you need to create a template however, contact an admin and we would be glad to help! When multiple templates are used in this manner, they make up what is called a standard.

Templates are called by encompassing the template name in two sets of curly brackets:

Many templates can accept variables. Variables are separated by vertical pipes:

It is as easy as that!

Introduction to standards
Standards is not a practice seen by other wikis, but the first admins contrived it in-order to help disseminate the information of new templates effectively and timely. A standards page will include:
 * 1) brief description
 * 2) example code of all templates used (convenient code to copy after you are familiar with the standard)
 * 3) table showing templateNames with descriptions and valid parameters
 * 4) example code of implementation
 * 5) result of example
 * 6) any special consideration needed for this template

For more information, see a full list of standards Help:Standards.

Infobox standard
All capstone design pages must include following table as the first lines of code. A final picture of your project will be included in this table, for now put a picture from snapshot. It is mandatory that all pictures be a 4:3 ratio.

User accounts
All user accounts must be the prefix to your vandal email. No team name accounts are allowed. We are about to restrict the website to valid accounts only, so please adjust accordingly. We are enforcing this to help with the transition of the site from offsite to onsite hosting.

5/30/13
Highlights: Description guidelines, Checklist Table, Advantages/disadvantages table (ADtable), Kaizen page, Additional resources, How to check your page, Using a table to format your page

Page discussions

 * Talk:Micrometer Measurements
 * Talk:90_Degree_Mill_Head
 * Talk:Swapping Lathe Chuck
 * Talk:Cutter Types (Lathe)
 * Talk:Cutter Types (Mill)
 * Talk:Cleaning Machines
 * Talk:Machine Setup/Maintenance (MakerBot)
 * Talk:Code Generation (MakerBot)
 * (pending) Talk:Part Design (MakerBot)
 * Talk:Tramming Mill Head
 * Talk:4th Axis (HAAS Mill)
 * Talk:Mounting Tools (HAAS Mill)
 * Talk:Squaring Rough Stock

Pages not (yet!!!) started
It is important that the first draft of these pages are started so we can give feedback.
 * Tumbler (C&M Topline)
 * Boring Head
 * Broach
 * Sine Bar
 * Rotary Table

Description guidelines
These pages do not have a proper description (the text directly under the page title):
 * Swapping Lathe Chuck
 * Cutter Types (Lathe)
 * Cutter Types (Mill)
 * Cleaning Machines
 * Micrometer Measurements

For an example of a proper description see: Code Generation (MakerBot)

Guidelines for the page description has been reproduced for your convenience here:

All pages should include a short synopsis/description at the beginning directly under the page title. See any wikipedia page for an expample, or see Manual_Lathe. This section should also include:
 * Any necessary 'Not to be confused with' statements (see code on Manual_Lathe for example of use of Distinguish template)
 * Any necessary 'Skip to' statements (see code on Manual_Lathe for example)
 * 'Main Article' statement (see code on Manual_Lathe for example of use of MainArticle template)

Kaizen suggestion page
We now have a page where anyone can add their own ideas for Kaizen projects

Additional resources
When creating these pages it is important not to reinvent the wheel (no value added in reinventing the wheel). We brought this up because there are several resources which exist that should be checked by each Kaizen project:
 * Shop Binder
 * Legacy Mindworks website
 * Machinist handbook

All teams should check these sources to ensure complete content. A table of contents of the chop binder has been posted here for your convenience.

How to check your page

 * 1) Have another group read over your pages
 * 2) Make sure to print out a copy of your page (or view it on your phone) and explicitly follow your steps
 * 3) Review the content with Russ
 * 4) Review your page with Curtis or Alex

You are not done until you have completed above steps

Using a table to format your page
Sometimes it is nice to control how the pictures and tables are laid out in your page. This can be accomplished with tables. The most basic table (without a class callout) will default to use 100% of the page, which means you can make a table with one row and two columns to help with formatting. You can also use a table with multiple rows and one column, where each cell has an entire section. If there is anything specific you would like to know, just email Curtis or Alex.

Some good examples:
 * Machine Setup/Maintenance (MakerBot)

5/28/13
Highlights:Uploading videos, Guidelines for Pictures/Figures, Itemized/Step by step table, Description guidelines

Q&A
There was a question regarding uploading videos. Please see Help:Page Editing (Quick) for more information.

Page discussions
We went through and added comments to many of the pages, including:
 * Swapping Lathe Chuck
 * Cutter Types (Lathe)
 * Cutter Types (Mill)
 * Cleaning Machines

Please incorporate comments by tomorrow midday.

Tomorrow I will be adding comments to:
 * 90 Degree Mill Head
 * Part Design (MakerBot)
 * Code Generation (MakerBot)
 * Machine Setup/Maintenance (MakerBot)

Pages not started

 * Tramming Mill Head
 * 4th Axis (HAAS Mill)
 * Mounting Tools (HAAS Mill)
 * Squaring Rough Stock
 * Micrometer Measurements
 * Tumbler (C&M Topline)
 * Boring Head
 * Broach
 * Sine Bar
 * Rotary Table

Guidelines for Pictures/Figures

 * Figures and drawings are far superior than pictures and should be used when reasonable
 * Mismatching of figures and images should be avoided
 * Figures should approach McMaster quality of figures see: http://www.mcmaster.com/#end-mills/=mycaju
 * Figures can be created in gimp, inkscape, SW or you choice of software
 * If pictures are required:
 * Try to make the group of pictures consistent. For example, the example table below has endmills laying down, and one standing up. This is bad practice!!!
 * Groups of images (pictures or figures) should have the same aspect ratio, and when possible should be of 1.33:1 (or 4:3). see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)#4:3_standard
 * Use consistent backgrounds, and when possible white background (piece of printer paper works well). This allows for easy future editing of image like background removal through gimp or photoshop.

Itemized/Step by step table (ID Table)
Simply copy and paste the code as required. Lines 1,2,3 set up the table, remember to change the table caption (Various types of mill cutters:) and the table headers (Tool/Step and Description). Copy and paste the 6th and 7th row as needed to add rows to the table, remembering to change the fileName, caption, and description fields as needed. The 5th row is an example and may be deleted. If the table is used for 'step by step' procedures, format caption as the following: Step 1: Turn on the Machine.


 * About this table
 * This table uses a template named we created RowPicture which is called by using double brackets . The template requires the necessary syntax to finish the row of the table.


 * See Also
 * http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Table
 * http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template

Description guidelines
All pages should include a short synopsis/description at the beginning directly under the page title. See any wikipedia page for an expample, or see Manual_Lathe. This section should also include:
 * Any necessary 'Not to be confused with' statements (see code on Manual_Lathe for example of use of Distinguish template)
 * Any necessary 'Skip to' statements (see code on Manual_Lathe for example)
 * 'Main Article' statement (see code on Manual_Lathe for example of use of MainArticle template)