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
• headgins (chapter/section/subsection)
• captions (tables and figures)

---

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

Other required packages are listed under the topic Packages.

---

Usage

1. Include designGiB.tex to your main document:

\input{designGiB}

2. Optional: Load additional packages.

3. Setup user defined values like title or author via:

   \newcommand*{\myTitle}{My extravagant dissertation title}  % thesis title
   \newcommand*{\myAuthor}{Jane Doe}  % authors name

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

4. Optional: Include bibliography and acronym sources.

   \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, e. g. titlepage_dissertation_de

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

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

8. Start your thesis!

---

Structure

This repository constits of a design template, title pages (different per thesis type) and samples (minimal and full).

├── design-template/
│      ├── designGiB.tex design template
│      └── titlepage_dissertation_de.tex title page for dissertation in german
└── 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)
               ├── chapter/ folder containing the thesis content
               ├── figures/ folder containing all figures
               ├── bibliography.bib contains the bibliography
               ├── content.tex this file contains all content
               ├── main.text merges everything together, sets language, sets user variables
               └── main.pdf final document

---

Packages

Mandatory packages

• acro handles acronyms
• amsmath improves the math mode and is strongly recomended when working with equations
• biblatex handels citations with BibLaTeX not BibTeX
• csquotes provides advanced facilities for inline and display quotations
• 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)
• 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
• textcomp modifies symbols, i. e. § and €

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
• 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 instead of using functions like $\alpha$
• todonotes insert to–do items in your document

Recommended packages for germans

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

---

Data input for headings and title page

Different title pages are available (shall be) depending on the type of thesis. To create the title page some additional information are needed. The kind of information 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. \newcommand*{\myAuthor}{Jane Doe}. In addition the heading for list of acronyms and the bibliography and the footer content can be modified.

• \myTitle title of the thesis
• \mySubtitle subtitle of the thesis
• \myAuthor author of the thesis
• \myFirstReviewer first reviewer or examiner
• \mySecondReviewer second reviewer or examiner
• \myExamDate date of the presentation or submission
• \myFootText text shown in the footer
• \myAcronymListCaption chapter caption for list of acronyms
• \myBibCaption chapter caption for bibliography

---

Additional Hints

Setup template to German language

1. Include packages babel and ziffer

   \usepackage[ngerman]{babel}  % set language to german
   \usepackage{ziffer}  % conversion of punctuation in maths mode (switches . and ,)

2. Change language of siunitx package

   \sisetup{locale=DE}  % set language of siunitx package to german (change . to ,)

3. Change headings for list of acronyms and bibliography:
   • Setting user defined names

     \newcommand*{\myAcronymListCaption}{Abkürzungsverzeichnis}
     \newcommand*{\myBibCaption}{Literaturverzeichnis}

   • Set acronyms heading before starting the document with \begin{document} \acsetup{list/name={\myAcronymListCaption}}
   • When calling \printbibliography set option to title={\myBibCaption}

     \printbibliography[title={\myBibCaption}]

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}

---

Support

Reach out to me at one of the following places!

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

---

License

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

---