EGR 103 Startup

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This page is a guide to how to get working on things for EGR 103. It has been updated for Fall 2023.

Resources

The main resources for EGR 103 are listed on the bottom of that page. There is also Pratt Pundit's Category:EGR 103, which collects pages of special interest to EGR 103 students.

Tools

The following will be a comprehensive list of the tools we will be using for the class, how to access or install them, and how to configure them.

Working From Off Campus

Note: If you are not on Duke internet, you will need to connect using a security program known as a VPN. See Connecting from Off Campus for links to get the program. This is particularly important for syncing to and having your Duke Box mounted on your computer.

File Storage - Box

You will be working with files on your own computer but you will be backing them up with a system called Box. Duke students have 50 GB of free storage for academic purposes on the box system. Furthermore, you can have Box sync up with your local files (as long as you put them in the right place)! If you need to work offline, you can, and when you are back on the Duke network, Box will automatically back up your files. You will also be able to share files with TAs if necessary.

First-time Box Setup

  • Go to https://box.duke.edu/.
  • Click the LOG IN button.
  • If asked if you are Part of Duke? Click Continue.
  • Log In using your Duke credentials.
  • You should now see your Duke Box - it may be entirely empty.

First-time Local Folder Setup

Next you will create a folder on your local computer to synchronize with your Box folder.

  • Go to https://duke.app.box.com/app-center/box_drive/app for information about Box Drive and for the download links for Windows and Mac. The links are near the bottom of the page.
  • Download the appropriate file and install it. For macOS, if it asks you to allow the extensions, you need to open System Preferences; click the General field and then there should be an "Allow" button at the bottom right. You may need to unlock system preferences by clicking the lock icon at the lower left and entering your password first.
  • Keep track of where the Box folder is placed on your drive.
    • For Windows it is likely a spur off the main File Explorer window and located specifically at C:\Users\USER\Box where USER is your Windows user name.
    • For Mac, a Box drive will be mounted.
  • To see it work, go into your Box folder on your computer, create a new folder within it, and call it EGR103F23 in all caps with no spaces. After you have created it, refresh the browser that is looking at your Box account and the folder should show up in your list!
  • Box Drive generally works when you are online and thus keeps things in the cloud and only pulls them down when you need them. To make sure that you have access when you are offline, and to mitigate any internet connectivity issues, you will want to tell Drive to make your folders available offline:
    • For MAC people: You are all set - do not worry about making it available offline.
    • For Windows people: In the File Explorer or Finder, open your Box folder.
    • If the EGR103F23 folder has a white check in a green circle as part of the icon, you are all set. If not:
      • Right-click EGR103F23 and in the context box find "Make Available Offline" - it may be in the "Show more options" section of the context box.
      • Once things have synchronized, there should be a white check in a green circle by the folder - that is the sign that the folder will be available offline.
  • You will never need to set this up again for the computer you are currently working on, but if you end up working on a different computer you will need to install Drive. This also means you can work from public or other computers as your files will always be on Box.

Document Preparation - Overleaf

This semester, we will be using a freemium tool called Overleaf for making lab documents. We will only need the free features for work this semester. Overleaf is a LaTeX editing and processing program. One drawback is that it cannot access files directly on your drive but rather needs you to upload them. As you go through the course, you will get a better and better idea of which files need to be uploaded. Note: During most labs, you will not need to get your Overleaf project set up until you are ready to start putting your lab report together. For Lab 1, however, working on Overleaf is the whole point of the lab!

Starting Up

  • You can log in using your Duke credentials at https://www.overleaf.com/edu/duke
  • Once you have logged in, you will have the option to look at some templates or the Help Guide. We will look at those in lab on my computer, so go ahead and progress straight to creating your first LaTeX project. Make it a blank project, and call it EGR103F23. Overleaf will create a main document with some boilerplate information in it. All of your labs will eventually be in this one project folder.


Getting Starter Files

  • Pre-script - for some people, after uploading all the files to Overleaf, some (or all) of the files fail to appear. If you upload the files and they do not seem to show up, click the arrow just to the right of the "Menu" icon at the top left of the screen to go back to your projects list and then click the name of your project to go back to the project. (strange, I know, but it seems to do the trick!)
  • ONE TIME ONLY - There is a style file that you will need for your LaTeX documents. You will only need to copy it this week and it will live in the EGR103F23 folder (the top level of your Overleaf project for this class).
    • Go to https://duke.box.com/v/EGR103F23stylefile and, if need be, log in to Box
    • Box will tell you that it can't preview the file but it should give you an option to Download it. Download the file and note where it is saved.
    • Open/go to a browser tab that is looking at https://www.overleaf.com/. Click on the EGR103F23 project if you are not already there. You likely only have one file - main.tex.
    • Near the top right of the screen, just above the list of files that contains main.tex, there are three icons for New File, New Folder, and Upload, where the latter looks like a computer with an arrow rising from it. Click the Upload icon.
    • In the Add Files window that comes up next, either drag the EGR103style.sty file you downloaded from Box into the "Drag here" window of click "select from your computer" and go find it.
    • Your project should now have both main.tex and EGR103style.sty in the file list.
    • You will only need to upload this style file once; each of your lab documents will be stored in a subfolder of your main project, and Overleaf is smart enough to look at the top-level folder for extra files!
  • EACH WEEK - I will give you access to at least the lab skeleton. This week, there are actually several files you will need. Here's how to get them:
    • Go to https://duke.app.box.com/v/EGR103F23public which is my shared EGR 103 Box folder for this semester.
    • Hover over the Lab01Files folder and then click the ... menu at the far right of Lab01Files that appears when you hover. Select Download. Box will download the files. Depending on whether you are logged into Box, it might give you the opportunity to log in. You do not need to.
    • Windows machines will download a zip file to open while macOS will open a folder to open.
      • If on Windows, double-click the zip file; from there you should be able to click on the Lab01Files folder and then click Extract all. In the "Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders" dialog window that comes up, click the "Browse" button to the right of the box with the location it is planning to deposit the folder and then navigate to your Box/EGR103F23 folder. That is where you will want to put the Lab01Files folder.
      • If on macOS, just move the folder that you downloaded into your Box/EGR103F23 folder.
    After the folder is copied and synchronized, the folder should get a green check.
    • Now open the Box/EGR103F23/Lab01Files folder and make a copy of the Lab01Sample_F23.tex file; call the new file lab1.tex.
    • In Overleaf, in your top-level EGR103F23 project, click the New Folder icon (second from the left just above the file list). Name the folder LAB01.
    • Click on the LAB01 folder to make it active, click on the vertical dots to the right to get the menu, then click Upload. Make sure you are uploading to the LAB01 folder and not to the top-level folder on Overleaf.
    • Drag all the files from your Box/EGR103F23/Lab01Files folder into the available space for uploading files and upload the files. This will copy them into Overleaf. To see them, click the > to the left of LAB01 to turn it into a v and show you the files.
    • Click on the lab1.tex file to make it active.
    • On the right above the preview panel, click the Recompile button to process the lab1.tex document. The lab skeleton will compile and you should see a preview of it.

Turning Things In

See EGR 103/Uploading Solutions. During the first lab, you will download the incomplete PDF that is made from the starter files and upload it to a Gradescope assignment called "Gradescope Test." When you are done with the work for Lab 1, you will download the complete PDF and upload it to a Gradescope assignment called "Lab 1".

Tools for Later

Accessing (some) Assignments and (some) Readings - Connect

The book for this semester is an electronic book hosted on McGraw-Hill's Connect system. You should have received an e-mail from the Sakai page about where to find it.

Turning (some) Things in - Gradescope

Some of the assignments for this semester will be graded using a system called Gradescope. Gradescope has many powerful features, including the ability to automatically grade some programming assignments!

Starting up

To access Gradescope, go to https://www.gradescope.com/. On the opening page, choose "School Credentials" and then "Duke NetID". If you are enrolled in the course (and if Sakai has had a chance to update the roster) EGR 103 should be one of the classes you see.

Writing and Running Code - Anaconda

Finally (!) we will be using the Anaconda distribution of Python for this semester. The Anaconda package comes with several development environments and other features that are useful to us.

Starting up

See Installing Anaconda and Spyder for information.

Web Pages Of Interest

Getting Work Done

See the page How To Get Work Done

Troubleshooting

Python Errors

If you encounter problems in Python, or you are new to programming, you may find it useful to check Python:Common Mistakes for help.

Questions

Post your questions by editing the discussion page of this article. Edit the page, then scroll to the bottom and add a question by putting in the characters *{{Q}}, followed by your question and finally your signature (with four tildes, i.e. ~~~~). Using the {{Q}} will automatically put the page in the category of pages with questions - other editors hoping to help out can then go to that category page to see where the questions are. See the page for Template:Q for details and examples.

External Links

References

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