I was trying to minimise walking distance and build Compact fort year ago.
My scetches(cant decode them)
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s319/nl/43378947/4becba45-20a6-4225-aa52-9f8600ed4168Main idea was that z-level movement cost same as x/y-movement. So your fortress should be like a cube. I got near 20 lvls of fortress for that but needed more for cube, but that will be hard to manage? so I stopped
Second idea was that system of production-stockpile should be as compact as it can be, because the most of moving are during production.
So my design was rather ugly and crumped.
0+- trade depot, baracks, trade stock, defences, hospital
-1-above ground plants
-2-seed stockpile, Underground plants + Mill for seeds
-3-more underground plants
-4-Stockpile for plant thread and food, flour
-5,-6 - Pasture
-7 - farm workshops, buthery, refuse, area, tanning, leather working
-8,-9 - Pasture
Also got kitchen "tower" parallel to this with indigriends, food, boose, kitchen and dinning room, turkey and pig hens for 9 lvls or so
After this 8-9 lvls of optimised bedrooms + noble rooms
After this(or in my case parrallel to have emergency water from kitchen reservuar to flood magma in case of mistake) Forge:
-10 -Magma Forges
-11 - Stockpile of bars and things for melt
-12 - Magma Furnace
-13 - Stockpile of flux and ores
-14,15,16,17 - stockpile for Ores
Hardest part to create compact magma pools. I used coal at first before I can bring magma.
Also different workshops not listed here is placed aroud central stairway with assosiated stockpiles - the most unpleasant but effective thing.
