GiB Thesis LaTeX Template

LaTeX template for theses (i. e. dissertation) at the Chair of Geotechnical Engeneering at RWTH Aachen. The template is based on the scrbook-class of the KOMA-Script. Some design modifications are made to match the design demands of the chair:

• fontsize
• margins
• linespacing
• header/footer
• citation
• headings (chapter/section/subsection)
• captions (tables and figures)
• title page

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Requirements

This template is coded to be compiled with PdfLaTeX. Other compilers like XeLaTex or LuaLaTeX can cause unpredictable errors. The continuous development of KOMA-Script, MiKTeX and other packages may lead to some commands being deprecated or to packages no longer being compatible with each other. The template was developed for the following packages and the announced specific version.

• MiKTeX v20.7
• KOMA-Script v3.31
• Babel v3.51

Other required packages are listed under the topic Packages.

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Usage

0. Include the biblatex citation and bibliography styles. This can be done in two different ways:

   1. Add the texmf folder (in biblatex-style) to your miktex installation:

      1. Open Miktex Console
      2. Select Operation Mode
      3. Goto Settings > Directories > Add
      4. Choose texmf folder from ./biblatex-style folder
      5. Task > Refresh file name database
      6. You are good to go

   2. Copy the files rwth-gib.bbx and rwth-gib.cbx contained in one of the subfolders to the root directory of your document (same folder where main.tex is stored).

   It is highly recomended to choose the first solution, as an update to a newer version of this repo is much easier and less confusing.

1. Include designGiB.tex to your main document:

\input{designGiB}

2. Optional: Change language from english to ngerman in document class. This needs to be hardcoded into the designGiB!

3. Setup user configuration file user_config.tex in subfolder ./additionals. You must not include this file, this is automatically done by the template.

   1. Set document \def\myThesisType{xx} type BA for bachelor thesis, MA for master thesis or DISS for dissertation:

   2. Set author, reviewers/examiners and exam date

      \def\myAuthor{Your Name}
      \def\myFirstReviewer{First Reviewer}
      \def\mySecondReviewer{Second Reviewer}
      \def\myExamDate{30.02.2021}

   3. Setup additional information like title/subtitle (for dissertation) or german/english title, supervisor and location (for master/bachelor thesis).

      % dissertation
      \def\myTitle{Dissertation Title}
      \def\mySubtitle{Subtitle for Dissertation}
      
      % bachelor/master thesis
      \def\myTitleDe{Deutscher Titel der Arbeit}
      \def\myTitleEn{English Thesis Title}
      \def\mySupervisor{Supervisors Name}
      \def\myExamLocation{Location}

      Find additional information in Data input for headings and title page.

   4. Optional: Load additional packages

4. Optional: Include bibliography and acronym sources in main.tex not in user_config.tex.

   \input{acronyms}  % acronyms.tex contains acronyms definitions
   \addbibresource{bibliography.bib}  % bibliography.bib is a BibLaTeX file

5. Begin the document.

   \begin{document}
   ...
   \end{document}

6. Include a specific title page (automatically set by template)

   \input{../../design-template/\myTitlepage}

7. Remember to use /frontmatter, /mainmatter and /appendix. (see Additional Hints|Document segmantation)

8. Start your thesis!

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Structure

This repository consists of a design template, title pages (different per document type), a bibliography style and samples (minimal and full).

├── design-template/
│      ├── designGiB.tex design template
│      ├── titlepage_dissertation_de.tex title page for dissertation in german
│      └── titlepage_bachelor_master.tex title page for master/bachelor thesis language independend
├── biblatex-style/
│      └── texmf/tex/latex/biblatex/
│               ├── bbx/
│                       └── rwth-gib.bbx biblatex bibliography style
│               └── cbx/
│                       └── rwth-gib.cbx biblatex bibliography style
└── samples/
        ├── minimal/ folder containing a minimal sample
        │      ├── bibliography.bib contains the bibliography
        │      ├── content.tex this file contains all content
        │      ├── main.tex merges everything together, sets language, sets user variables
        │      └── main.pdf final document
        └── full/ folder containing a full sample (with german remarks)
               ├── additionals/ folder containing additional content like user_config.tex, bibliography and acronyms.
               ├── chapter/ folder containing the thesis content
               ├── figures/ folder containing all figures
               ├── main.text merges everything together, sets language, sets user variables
               └── main.pdf final document (compiled)

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Packages

All up-coming packages, with the exception of the packages recommended for Germans, are already set up in the template.

Mandatory packages

• acro handles acronyms
• amsmath improves the math mode and is strongly recomended when working with equations
• babel sets the documents language
• biblatex handels citations with BibLaTeX not BibTeX
• caption additional options for captions and required for subcaption package
• csquotes provides advanced facilities for inline and display quotations
• enumitem improves enumerate and itemize environment
• fontenc mandatory for correct encoding of western european letters
• geometry is used to change margins
• lmodern changes fonts and makes them clearer
• longtable table enrivonment for tables longer then a single page (in this case its used list of symbols)
• microtype better results in line breaks and overfull boxes
• scrlayer-scrpage is part of KOMA-script and is used to manipulate header and footer, i. e. adding seperation lines
• setspace changes the linespacing in an easy way
• subcaption includes subfigure environment
• textcomp modifies symbols, i. e. § and €
• uarial use an arial-cloned font as ssfamily font
• xcolor makes latex more colorful and is needed to create title pages

Recommended packages

• booktabs adds and changes lines and spacing in tables and beautifies them
• enumitem modifies and extends enumerate and itemize environment
• graphicx used to include graphics
• hyperref modifies links and refs in generated pdf (in this case links are not shown)
• lineno creates line numbering which is usefull for a review process
• lscape introduce landscape environment, for exmaple to turn tables
• pdfpages include full pdf documents (not only single pages like includegraphics)
• siunitx helpfull to show value-unit-pairs in text
• tabularx create tabulars with a fixed width (one flexible col)
• textalpha makes it possible to use greek letters in the source code (unicode) instead of using functions like $\alpha$
• todonotes insert to–do items in your document

Recommended packages for germans

• ziffer activates the german punctation conversion: , is decimal separator; . is thousand separator (will be replaced by protected space)

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Data input for headings and title page

Different title pages are available depending on the document type. To create a nice and correct title page some additional information are needed and the kind of intermation depends on the title page. The information have to be written into commands, that are going to be used by the title page, e. g. \def{\myAuthor}{Jane Doe}. These additional information have to be stored in a seperate file called user_config.tex stored in additional subfolder (see full sample).

• \myThesisType type of document: BA, MA or DISS
• \myAuthor author of the document
• \myFirstReviewer first reviewer or examiner
• \mySecondReviewer second reviewer or examiner
• \myExamDate date of the presentation or submission

Additional for dissertation:

• \myTitle title of the thesis
• \mySubtitle subtitle of the thesis

Additional for bachelor/master thesis:

• \myTitleDe title of thesis in german
• \myTitleEn title of thesis in english
• \mySupervisor name of supervisor
• \myExamLocation location of the examination, i. e. Aachen

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Additional Hints

Setup template to German language

1. Modify language in template designGiB. Change english to ngerman as follows from

   \documentclass[	paper=a4,  % paper size set to DIN A4
                   [...]  % some options are left out here for a better overview!
                   % set language that will be send to all language dependend packages, e.g. babel
                   english  % set language to english
                   % ngerman  % set language to new german
                 ]{scrbook}  % document class

   to

   \documentclass[	paper=a4,  % paper size set to DIN A4
                   [...]  % some options are left out here for a better overview!
                   % set language that will be send to all language dependend packages, e.g. babel
                   % english  % set language to english
                   ngerman  % set language to new german
                 ]{scrbook}  % document class

2. Include package ziffer

   \usepackage{ziffer}  % conversion of punctuation in maths mode (switches . and ,)

3. Change headings for bibliography:

   • When calling \printbibliography set option to title={\myBibCaption}

     \printbibliography[title={\myBibCaption}]

Error(s) while compiling

If you are running into errors while compiling your latex document, these hints might help you to solve your problem:

1. Update your miktex installation to prevent errors due to oudated packages.
2. Check if compiler is set to PdfLaTeX and not XeLaTex or LuaLaTeX.
3. Check if bibliography interpreter is set to biber (biblatex) but not to bibtex
4. Take a deeper look into the log files and try to solve it on your own.
5. Running on Linux? Inlcude inputenc package and set option to utf8.

Bibliography

Set up/declare the bibliography file *.bib in your main document and not in the user_config.tex. Due to the software you are using this can cause problems, because the software, e.g. TeXstudio, doesn't recognize the bibliography files, doesn't run biber and therefore the compiler tells you, that main.bbl is missing. Furthermore will the bibliography compiling not be done automatically, as changes of the bibliography file are not automatically recognized by your software.

Document segmantation

1. Use \frontmatter at the beginning and set the page numbering to Roman. The front matter includes all lists of something, e. g. figures, table of contents and titlepage.

   \frontmatter
   \pagenumbering{Roman}
   ... (title page, list of...)

2. Following use \mainmatter for the main part of the document, closing with the bibliography.

3. Close the document with \appendix.

   \appendix
   \clearpage
   
   ... your appendix content
   
   \end{document}

Easy Review

1. Include package lineno

   \usepackage{lineno}

2. Put the following code at the beginning of your document

   \begin{document}
     \linenumbers  % add numbers to each line
     \setstretch{2}  % set line spacing to factor 2
   ...

Preset default figures path

You can preset a default path where figures are stored to reduce typing in your main document. Set default path via

\graphicspath{{figures/}}

Now you can use

\includegraphics{yourFigure.jpg}

instead of

\includegraphics{figures/yourFigure.jpg}

Create a list of symbols

The easiest way to create a list of symbols is to create a table containing your symbols and the description. You should use a longtable in this case to be prepared for a table enlarging a single page.

\chapter{List of Symbols}
  \section*{Latin Letters}
    \begin{longtable}[l]{p{1cm}p{1cm}l}
      $A_0$ & $[m^2]$ & cross-sectional area at the beginning of the experiment \\
      $B$ & $[m]$ & Sample width\\
      ...
    \end{longtable}

Use value-unit-pairs (siunitx)

To create a value unit pair the opportunities of siunitx package should be used.

\SI{35}{\kilo\newton\per\square\meter}  % single value
\SIrange{1e-9}{10e-9}{\meter\per\second}  % range inlcuding value

Captions for tables

To create a caption above a table, respecting design margings \captionabove must be used instead of \caption.

\begin{table}
  \captionabove{Your table caption}
  \label{tbl:yourTableName}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lrr} 
    % content
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

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Support

Reach out to me at one of the following places!

• Website at www.geotechnik.rwth-aachen.de
• ORCID
• XING

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License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details

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