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[joaodosgrao]

So, I just tried setting up a mining operation with minecarts on a corner of the map (had a huge mountain of bituminous coal)
Got a 20 dorf migrant wave, had around 15 mining picks standing around, set everyone to mining and hollowed it up.

Thing is, wheelbarrow haulers dragged most of what was there pretty fast (while they could be hauling stuff around the fortress)
Minecart got barely used and was way less efficient than them.

So I burrowed everyone on the main fort, and created an alternative burrow only for the mining operation. Thing is, with this civilian burrow alert active (maybe I should have manually set my civilians to the burrow, one by one, instead of using the alert?) it was kind of wonky, the civilians assigned to the mines wouldn't go there.

My suggestion would be creating a zone setting only for mining operations when they are remote, and set it as a "hauling job". Dorfs that were assigned would only haul stuff inside that zone, and work with minecarts and tracks that are connected to it. Likewise, dorfs that don't have it assigned would ignore these zones completely for hauling purposes. So you could have a "mining operation" dwarf that will only haul stone to the "mining zone stockpiles", another one that will only haul gems, one or two that will ride/push the carts, etc

Oh, one more thing... Is it me, or setting up a mining operation really is not worth the trouble? I mean, I hollowed out the mountain pretty fast, have quite a lot of supplies in the warehouse (food, booze). So I halted all the production on the fort for a few days, set up a stockpile that would receive all the stone/gems from the mine, had a lot of spare bins and put around 20 wheelbarrows and just told everyone to haul. They hauled it all in half the time I spent setting up the tracks and all the minecart hauling duties and whatnot. Am I missing something?

[PatrikLundell]

If you want to organize operations around burrows you should probably use burrows to organize it, and not civilian alert ones (i.e. painfully allocate dorfs one at a time).

I know civilian alert burrows release dorfs from more restrictive individual burrows, but I haven't tried the combination of a civilian alert burrow with normal burrows outside of it, although that OUGHT not to work, as the civilian alert one should override the others.

Setting up mine tracks etc. for mining operations is probably not worth the effort. Tracks are better used for more permanent infrastructure, such as hauling between magma sea workshops and the "proper" fortress topside. However, all mine cart operations suffer from the problem that hauling from the feeder stockpile into the mine carts is a lower priority task than hauling to the feeder stockpiles, frequently resulting in stalled operation.

[joaodosgrao]

Thanks for the insight. I figured using alert burrows and civilian ones might not work correctly, at least now I'm certain of that.
Guess individual burrow assignment is kind of a slow process and should be paid attention to from the beginning of the fortress, lest one be possibly having to assign hundreds of dwarves one by one *sigh* but here I go, lol 

Well, guess my suggestion is sort of applicable then? (I'm kind of a noob)
Since it seems operations get stalled due to other hauling priorities, maybe having a "custom burrow" (but not actually a burrow - maybe "operations zone" ? So they can do whatever they are assigned to in that area, and leave it after a certain temporary shift) where you can simply set an area and forget, so that the assigned dorfs will prioritize hauling around and riding/pushing/guiding the carts assigned to to it through the rails? Maybe having some sort of "work shift" for them, so that when they get hungry they just leave the area and walk around the defined burrow for them, or none, so that they can satisfy their needs without the need of painting a burrow all over the fort so they can get food/booze/socialize?

It seems a waste having such a cool mechanic but it being worth only for a big z-level difference constant hauling :/ and it getting stalled, lol

[PatrikLundell]

It should be noted that burrows define where permitted activity targets are located, but does absolutely nothing to keep them inside the burrow en route. This means that Urist McSmith can be assigned to a personal burrow that consists zones painted over the smithy, the stockpiles containing work materials, the bedroom, the food and booze stockpiles, the tavern, the temple, the library and the clothes stockpile, and only take up jobs in those locations. However, if Urist is only assigned smithing jobs, those are the only places he'd visit anyway, unless a "need to wander" need takes him to less usual locations.
For menial hauling sectioning the work areas might make sense, but they you probably should have the bedroom, a tavern,.... in that section as well, or a lot of time is going to be lost trekking back and forth.