DART Documentation

This directory contains documentation for DART users, developers, and contributors.

For New Contributors

Start here: onboarding/README.md - Complete developer onboarding guide with architecture, components, and workflows.

Documentation Structure

Developer Onboarding (Markdown)

Located in onboarding/ - Architecture guides for developers:

• Onboarding Guide - Complete internal architecture overview with diagrams
• Core Architecture - Deep dive into simulation engine internals
• Aspect System - Aspect/State/Properties design and implementation
• Dynamics System - Articulated body system and kinematics
• Constraint Solver - Constraint resolution and collision response
• GUI & Rendering - OpenSceneGraph integration details
• Python Bindings - nanobind bindings architecture
• Build System - CMake internals and dependency analysis
• Building from Source - Step-by-step build instructions
• Code Style Guide - Code conventions for C++, Python, and CMake
• Model Loading (IO) - Unified model loading API (dart::io)

Format: Markdown (GitHub/LLM-friendly) for internal codebase understanding

User Documentation (ReadTheDocs)

Located in readthedocs/ - Published documentation for end users:

• User Guides - Installation, tutorials, migration guides
• API Reference - Published API documentation

Format: ReStructuredText (RST) for Sphinx/ReadTheDocs publishing

Quick Links by Task

• New to DART? → onboarding/README.md
• Building from source? → onboarding/building.md
• Contributing code? → onboarding/contributing.md + onboarding/code-style.md
• Understanding architecture? → onboarding/architecture.md
• Using DART API? → dart.readthedocs.io
• Looking for examples? → examples/ and tutorials/