Hello,
Instead of searching my answer throughout every thread, I was just wondering if there is going to be an actual hand written manual on the PANDA 3D Engine? If not, is there an Adobe PDF file or equivilant? Is there a full blown basic written manual in the works? Thank you for your time.
Taylor
Hello Taylor,
The only documentation currently available is what’s available on this website. Josh Yelon from Carnegie Mellon has been working on other forms of documentation, however, its still in-progress due to work-load.
So we’ll just have to use what’s available and ask questions on the forum for now.
Steve
One of the unique things about the Panda3d manual is that it is in fact a wiki (The login button is a little dot at the bottom of the page) so that the community can make improvements to whenever find something to improve. Currently Josh has not figured out how to generate static webpages out of the wiki yet. But even if we did have a downloadable version, it’s still a good idea to use to web version to make sure you have the most recent information.
To make static pages why not run some kind of website copier/ripper? Like a spider - point it at the start of the wiki docs and let it surf down through the various topics. It should save them all as HTML.
Thank you, gentlemen for your replies. This helps me out a lot! 
I wish the best of luck to those of you working on and with the Panda 3D engine. I know I’m going to see what I can do as well…this could be fun.
-Taylor
Huh, you know, I learned something new today. I didn’t know you could make changes to the Panda3d manual.
Steve
I’d be glad if you guys were to contribute to the manual, but remember — it needs to keep on looking like a manual. It should have a working table of contents, and a clear sequence to it, and a consistent formatting style. I don’t want little “edit” links appearing in the middle of an explanation of a panda feature. In other words, feel free to work on it, but stick to the style.
The login button for the wiki is the tiny dot underneath each page.
Me either!
I did a basic offline-mirror of the manual that can be downloaded here (2.5 mb).
After unpacking open “Main_Page.html”, located in “panda3d.org/manual/index.php/”.
Well it’s quite easy though but extracting the Manual-Text so to create a PDF from it shouldn’t be to difficult to do…[/url]
I did the same using a program called HTTrack.
Ive parsed the html files and taken out the side pictures plus the top bar-links. Now I have it as a .chm
Ill try to get around to uploading it to a site tonight - But no promises
Here is a snapshot of the manual as a chm file. Its only 1.4mb.
Panda3D Manual in chm format
Hope it comes in handy!
It appears there was a GFX problem in the file - Doh!
I have now upped a new chm file (same location and size) which should resolve that problem.
Have Fun!
If somebody could write a tidy little script to do this, and send it to me (jyelon@andrew.cmu.edu), then I could start distributing the manual on the downloads page. I would love to do this, and you guys wouldn’t have to maintain the script from that point forward.
Josh, a script in which language? I might get some time to look into it.
Here is what I did for the chm file.
HTtrack to mirror the man pages.
A little (quick&dirty) routine to remove the wiki login, the menu bar at the top and the pics to the right. This was done to resolve a scripting problem in the chm file and help keep file size down.
Then I used a program called FAR to create the chm file. I gave up with HTML workshop because I could find no logical way to create the tree view to the left and the nav buttons 
Let me know and Ill see what I can get setup.
@The_sandman: Wow good job
I’ve downloaded your file. It’s a real good work.
This are my ideas to make it a little bit better:
*) remove the headline(Panda3d and the pictures), because everybody who reads this file knows that he is reading the panda3d manual
*) Remove the table too and display only the text, no back color.
*) I’m writting a programm that builds the projectfiles for HTML-Workshop. The programm take the folder structure and all files and make the projectfiles.
Example:
Folder1/file1.html
Folder1/Folder2/File2.html
Folder1/Folder3/File3.html
Folder1/file4.htm
Output: A projectfile that creates a chm-File with the folowing View
*)file1
*)file4
->Folder2
*)file2
->Folder3
*)file3
If you want I can send you the source code(C++) when the programm is working correct.
Maybe this could help to make your work a little bit more use able.
Martin
Hiya Martin,
Glad you like it. It was just a quick test to see what could be done and hopefully stop ppl posting “where can I download the manual” 
I did not really want to remove any of the background html code as I wanted it to be an exact copy of the online manual but one of the background scripts was playing up so I had no choice. And then I did not like file size because of the piccys to the right of the site, so they had to go.
The code I did for removing the html bits is very dirty and really needs a rewrite. Perhaps if I get time at the weekend Ill try to sort it out.
Now you kinda got me thinking with your little proggy that maybe its possible to hook into the HTtrack program, then run it through a parse routine and perhaps finish off with your stuff.
Just an idea. Ill mull it over a little more at the weekend.
Script in what language? I kinda meant some sort of Linux shell script, or python script, or something, that would do this automatically.
Hiya Josh,
I was looking at python bindings for httrack located here…
satzbau-gmbh.de/staff/abel/httrack-py/
Was thinking of using that and then parsing out the text. But ran outta time
The biggest problem is what to use as an output format? Need something thats portable like pdf. But Ive not had time to look for any lib with python bindings yet.