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[Kinoko_Otoko]

I'm pretty new to Dwarf Fortress. I've only been as far as the first caravan arriving, and successfully trading with it. Then I realized I couldn't use magma powered stuff on my map, nor access glassworking. So I used one of the pre-generated seeds to get a map with everything. I started the new game, got as far as the first caravan again (but screwed up this time so they couldn't get in) and then realized that I had no idea how I was going to lay out my fortress anyway, so I'm restarting that particular map again.

But first, I decided to make a flowchart to help me categorize the various workshops based on the materials involved, etc.

I thought I'd share it with you guys.

Incidentally, I just realized I intended to add some notes about color coding etc. but I'm too tired/have things to do right now... I'll get to it later.

[Diamond]

Nice work, but it is kind of hard to understand. And too much of unnecessary things with that bins/barrels.
If would be more useful if you did industry flowcharts like in DFwiki and connected them all into One Big Ultimate Flowchart. That would be very useful to new players.

[Overspeculated]

You don't need a flowchart, you just need to know what each process requires and how to get that. Bins and barrels are a given. You don't need a massive industry anyway, a single legendary will pump out items with incredible speed. For example my 200+ dwarf fortress has one magma glass furnace (+ 4 normal glass furnaces that have sand collection active) and one carpenters workshop. And I'm pretty much making all of my furniture out of glass.

[Kinoko_Otoko]

I think you're both kind of missing the point. The idea is to assist with organization of the fort, i.e. which shops can afford to be far away from, say, your wood. Perhaps it's more of a diagram than a flowchart, with the intent of enabling a greater degree of forethought and planning, with a resulting increase in efficiency in transporting materials. You'll notice they're grouped by the general class of materials they involve, with significant overlaps marked in purple.

As for readability, I'll try and fix that a bit with the notes/legend.

And I know I can sustain a fort with a single industry, but where's the fun in that?

[Nexii Malthus]

Yeah, optimizing hauling routines to be as effective as possible isn't just a simple answer when you have shared resources between several workshops, especially when there is a crazy mix of transfer inbetween the resource stockpiles to other clusters of workshops relevant to the resource, etcetera.

You need to organize input and output to work smoothly. The chart is sort of handy for an overview on the situation. Doesn't seem to really do the trick for me though. Not sure, maybe you can try visualizing it in various different ways?  There are a bunch of different ways/variations to get connectivity graphs, spider diagrams, clusters, webs and such graphically represented.

• Weird stretched connectors. Very odd and peculiar to look at.
• Items versus workshops
• Bins and barrels? Why? Seems like an completely unnecessary distinction. You could just tag a little cue symbol on product items. Item product having icon on bottom right with a Square (=Bin) or Cylinder (= Barrel).

Try to classify/categorize them better up. Use subtle changes and cues to advantage, avoid overwhelming differences.

[uberubert]

I seem to remember someone making a simple and neat flowchart in preparations for the first 3d-versions release, but I 'm unable to recover that thread.

I always try to organize my industries to avoid inefficient long hauls, but tend to neglect efficiency more and more after my super-perfect food-industry has finished setting up.
I'm thinking about starting up a new fort again now, and situate the entire thing (except bedrooms and tombs) on 4 levels:

1: --Workshops/Farm--
2: --Storage for buffering input/output haulings--
3: --More storage for buffering more input/output haulings--
4: --More workshops--

This way I can allow goods to move up and down with short distances between each processing station. Maybe I should even put in one more level of storage, for finished products only.

[Fossaman]

I've found vertical stacking of workshop levels to be the key to efficiency. It's possible to set it up so that no item ever needs to be moved more than one or two levels in an 11x11 area to complete anything except decorations. I'll usually put two or three workshops or furnaces on each level, and a couple stockpiles, which are useful to both workshops if possible. For example, The mason's, mechanic's, and craftsdwarf's workshops go on the same level, with stone stockpiles in the squares immediately adjacent to each workshop. Furniture storage is on the next level down, so stuff from the mason's and mechanic's doesn't have to travel far. Finished goods is on the same level, for the CD workshop. So the workshop using dwarf only needs to travel two squares to get stone, and haulers need to go a max of nine squares to stockpile any of the common productions from those workshops.

Typically the stone has been quantum-dumped, too. But that's kind of cheating.

[quinnr]

Thanks, this one is better than the ones on the Wiki. Good work!

[slink]

The leatherworks and clothier also produce decorations.

Seeds and dye, in bags, will be further stored in barrels.

Bins are never compulsory, and barrels/bags are only sometimes.  These distinctions could be important at times.

[balath]

No matter whether people find it helpful or not, I think we can all agree that you've made a truly Dwarfy chart.

[darthbob88]

Connections and "beginnings" are very crazy indeed. It's difficult to tell which raw materials feed into which workshops, and which shops should be located close to each other. Doubtless it'd be better when you've added the legend, but it's still difficult to read easily.

Edit: Actually, if I've got the idea correctly, all this really needs is some polish, a legend, and a bit of applied topology. It looks like an admirable idea expressed not well enough.

[blue emu]

The flowchart would work better in 3-D... possibly drawn on the surface of a torus.

[Grendus]

That flowchart is honestly confusing. It's easier, in my experience, to start with stonecrafting (which is pitifully easy to set up) and slowly expand your industrial knowledge. By trying different industries in every fort, it lets you settle on ones you really like.

As far as efficiency goes, what you really need is to set up container buffers. A reserve of bins, barrels, and bags that's sized for the industrial demands will allow you to pretty much automate production. Multi z-level forts let you optimize efficiency if you go that way. It's really not that hard when you get the hang of it.

[Pandarsenic]

This flowchart needs to be etched into a sphere of stone to be properly appreciated.

[Kinoko_Otoko]

Alright, so I took some of your suggestions and worked them into the chart.

Tell me what you think now.

EDIT: Just realized I missed that bit from slink about bags in barrels; added a note. Which other bagged items need to be in barrels to keep from going bad?