First, there must be a noble assigned in 'n'obles to use the workshop profile.
Press 'q' and cover a carpenter's workshop just as if assigning beds to be made.
Press 'shift-p' to enter the workshop profile.
Press 'right arrow' to highlight Work Orders.
Press 'q' to create a work new order.
Type the word "bed" to narrow down the list of items to create, then press 'enter' to select "Construct Bed".
Press '7' and hit enter. Then 'esc' out.
There is now a workorder to create seven beds. The manager will eventually approve the work order and a carpenter will make them. Once completed you will get a completion message and the work order will disappear.
Q: How is this different from just assigning seven beds in the workshop?
A: The first and probably most important difference is that you can load up a workshop with far more than ten items to create. Another difference is that work orders themselves don't cancel until complete, which can be good or bad depending on your tolerance level for cancelation spam. And another difference is that you will get a message on completion, which may help in reminding to build the seven beds.
Q: Why doesn't the "at least 10 wooden pots" condition keep 10 wooden pots on hand?
A: See the following example. Conditions are triggers to initiate the work order. They do not influence the subject of the work order, only whether the work order is started or not. Consider the statement, "If there are at least ten empty large pots, then make five large pots." This will produce no large pots when they are needed, and more when they are already in oversupply.
Go to the workshop and create a work order for 10 large wood pots as in the bed example above.
Press 'c' to change the conditions for the work order.
Press '++' to change the frequency to "Restarts if completed, checked monthly".
Press 'a' to add an item condition.
Press 'i' to change item type. Type in the word 'pot' and select "large pots", press 'enter'.
Press 'q' to change the inequality to "at most". Remember that this is a condition to create the work order. If you already have 100 large pots you probably don't need 10 more.
Press 'n' to change the number, type in 10. Then 'esc' out.
There is now a work order to create 10 large pots any time (checking once per month) the number available falls below 10. Once the manager approves the work order, it will be set and you can forget about large pots as long as there is wood on hand.
Q: Is there a way to make
up to a certain number of something?
A: It does not appear so. The "perpetual" is very similar to the standard workshop "repeat", except that cancellation of the job for whatever reason (e.g. short supply of materials) won't cancel the work order itself. This leads to steady cancelation spam.
Q: Is it possible to change the number created by the work order after the work order is set up? I.e., can I change my amounts as my fortress grows?
A: No. You may change conditions freely, but the initial number is fixed. You will need to make additional work orders or delete the old one and set up a new one.
Go to the workshop and create a work order for 4 Coffers as in the bed example above.
Press 'd' for details.
Press 'f', then type micro, press 'enter' twice. (once to close the filter, once to select microcline)
Press 'c' to change the conditions for the work order.
Press 'r' to add conditions from reagents/materials.
Press 'n' and type 4 & 'enter'.
Press '+' to change the frequency to "Restarts if completed, checked monthly". (Notice that setting a material condition also sets the order to "Restarts if complete, checked daily" so you only need to modify the frequency, if desired.) Then 'esc' out.
There is now a work order to create 4 microcline coffers each month if the microcline is available. The step order matters here. If you set details first, then hitting 'r' brings up the mats for the exact item you want. If you change the mats condition first, you will need to manually change the material to microcline, or the order will try to proceed because 4 stone is available, even if there is no microcline.
Go to the Still and create a work order for 1 "Brew drink from plant" as in the bed example above.
Press 'c' to change the conditions for the work order.
Press 'r' to add conditions from reagents/materials. Two conditions will appear.
Highlight the "DRINK_MAT..." conditions, press 'n' and type in 1.
Highlight the "empty food storage" condition, press 'n' and type in 1. Then 'esc' out.
There is now a work order to produce booze whenever there are plants and pots available. Once the manager approves the work order, you'll see a lot less dwarves eating plump helmets next to the prepared food stockpile. Keep in mind that this is really only good for maintenance, not massive production. If you buy a lot of fruit/plants from caravans you'll probably want to handle those with separate repeating orders.
At a Kiln:
Collect Clay 4/4
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily
Amount of collected fire clay items available is at most 10
In this example, a work order to collect 4 fire clay will start whenever there is 10 or less fire clay available.
Note: The type of clay checked must be specific. However, the type of clay collected can't be controlled. So be very careful if you have multiple clay collection zones of different types.
At a Screw Press:
Press honey from honeycomb 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount non-pressed HONEYCOMB_PRESS_MAT-producing honeycombs available is at least 1.
Amount of liquid container available is at least 1.
At a Still:
Make mead 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount of honey-containing items available is at least 1.
Amount of empty food storage items available is at least 1.
At a Craftsdwarf Workshop:
Make wax crafts 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount of WAX glob available is at least 1.
For each work order, pressing 'r' under conditions automatically fills in each reagent and sets it to check daily, so you don't need to worry about the exact naming, just modifying desired conditions.
Keeps a minimum number of sheets on hand and processes the excess to thread. Replace with whichever sheet/thread crop you have.
At a Quern/Mill:
Mash plant into slurry 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount of PAPER_SLURRY glob available is at most 10.
This will make sure there is always slurry on-hand to press. The count here is the amount of glob, not stacks. Specify paper_slurry, otherwise a large amount of tallow in the kitchen stockpile will prevent this from working.
At a Screw Press:
Press plant slurry into paper sheet 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount of sheet available is at most 20.
This is the control to prevent over-production while keeping 20 sheets on-hand.
At a Farmer's Workshop linked to the hemp plant stockpile:
Process Plants 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount of unrotten processable hemp plants available is at least 20.
Threshes excess plants while keeping some on-hand for mashing. Use 'hemp plant plant' under 't'raits to specify type or it may mash all the hemp because there are Pigtails somewhere else. The count here is the number of plants, not the number of stacks.
Produces one hempseed oil soap per month. Can be replaced with Rocknuts et .al.
At a Wood Furnace:
Make Ash 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked monthly.
Amount of logs available is at least 10.
Amount of empty buckets available is at least 1.
Amount of empty jugs available is at least 1.
At an Ashery:
Make Lye 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Amount of empty buckets available is at least 1. (Redundant but might help prevent some spam)
Make Ash (1) must first be completed.
At a Quern linked to the seed stockpile:
Mill seeds/nuts to paste 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Make Ash (1) must first be completed.
At a Screw Press:
Press liquid from paste 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Mill seeds/nuts to paste (1) must first be completed.
At a Soap Maker's Workshop:
Make soap from oil 1/1
Restarts if completed, conditions checked daily.
Make Lye (1) must first be completed.
Press liquid from paste (1) must first be completed.
Press 'j' then 'm' to get to the managers screen.
Press 'q', then type "rock pot" then press 'enter' to select "Make rock Pot".
Type 20, press 'enter'.
Highlight the order in the work order list, then press 'c'.
Press '++' to change the frequency to monthly. You may also want to set conditions as in examples above.
Press 'enter', then enter 3 to restrict the order to 3 workshops. Then 'esc' out.
The work order should distribute 20 jobs to 3 craftsdwarf workshops. Which workshops further depends on your workshop profiles.
To exclude a workshop from accepting these orders, go into the workshop profile, right arrow over to "Labor Restrictions" and deselect "Stonecrafting" (turn it red).
To limit the number of jobs a workshop will get at a time, use '/' or '*' under "Work Order" in the workshop profile.
