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[Slythe]

The trick is subtle.  Dig Opposite, wall.  Dig side, wall.  Dig under, wall.  But for the third section, do not dig under or you flood.

I'm not quite sure where you're referring to when you say "opposite, side, and under".  Can you be more specific ?

[hapes]

Sure.  The pump on the layer above is 2 tiles long.  One of those tiles is the input.  The wall beneath that is under.  The wall across the channel is the opposite wall, and the walls on the side are ... obvious, I hope.

[ThirdSpartacus]

The trick is subtle.  Dig Opposite, wall.  Dig side, wall.  Dig under, wall.  But for the third section, do not dig under or you flood.

Hrmmm... yeah I wouldn't be able to explain it much better than this but if you do get to understand it, it's a fantastic trick for plowing through aquies.

[JmzLost]

Seriously? Has no one yet made a "double-slit experiment" joke? Especially when the author of the method is QuantumMenace?

This is a serious discussion of Dwarven !SCIENCE!.  I'm sure no one wanted to make waves.  Or particles, as the case may be.

JMZ

[ThirdSpartacus]

Seriously? Has no one yet made a "double-slit experiment" joke? Especially when the author of the method is QuantumMenace?

This is a serious discussion of Dwarven !SCIENCE!.  I'm sure no one wanted to make waves.  Or particles, as the case may be.

JMZ

OHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HAHHH AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!!

I get it now! I mean, I saw this last week and didn't get it. Then I was staring at my window light-slats today and the revelation finally came to me!!!! ZOMG!!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHAAAAA HAAA!!! Haaah...

EDIT: Oh, sry for necro btw.

[Slythe]

Don't remove all the internal walls until you have stair access or dwarves might get stuck there, unable to use the ramps. Dig down stairs to reveal the layer below, then build up/down stairs on top of them for access. Building the stairs will remove any 1/1 water on the tile, and render the layer below dry if it is not an aquifer.

I'm trying to get a clear picture of this last step here.  It says not to remove all the internal walls until you have stair access, but in the third picture all 4 internal walls (3 wood and 1 stone) have been carved into downward stairs?  Is this correct?  And in the final picture, were the ramps removed?  I guess I'm not quite understanding what he means.

[hapes]

The key here is that the ramps won't work if there isn't a wall adjacent to the ramp with open space above the wall.  So, what you do is this:  dig out your last aquifer square as the secon image shows (haven't tried just designating it as an up/down staircase, that may or may not work), then dig a down stairs, then build an up/down staircase, all before knocking down the inner constructed walls. 

[ThirdSpartacus]

The key here is that the ramps won't work if there isn't a wall adjacent to the ramp with open space above the wall.  So, what you do is this:  dig out your last aquifer square as the secon image shows (haven't tried just designating it as an up/down staircase, that may or may not work), then dig a down stairs, then build an up/down staircase, all before knocking down the inner constructed walls.

Digging it as an up/down stair would block the floor-room required for the platform to tunnel through the next layer. Unless the next layer is non-aquifer. In that case, go ahead.

[AllThingsLive]

I know this topic is quite old, but I'm wondering how you could use that method to create a 3x3 stairway. Anyone have any ideas?

[ThirdSpartacus]

I think if you expand Lemurson's pump tower by putting some more pumps, axles, and what-not in the expanded shaft size (6x6 vs 4x4 for a 3x3 staircase) you can drill that size staircase...

You would need alot of mechanical power for that many pumps though.
I don't think Quantum's method can be adjusted for 3x3 stairs, either.

So... if the expanded pump tower doesn't work then I'm at a loss. :|

Expand this with more pumps?:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I have a method where I bore a 4x4 shaft through aquifers of any kind.  It required considerable mechanical power and 4 pumps (and 2 mechanisms) per level, but onc you get it going is infallible.

Code: [Select]

This pattern can be repeated for each level in your drilling operation to drain water from aquifers so that your workers can work.
 (Either smoothing stone walls or laboriously constructing their own in semi-flooded cancel-spamming conditions) 
Each pump's output is sucked up by the pump on the level above it forming a "bucket brigade" of water transported from flooded areas to the surface where the water is disposed of.
2 stacks of gear-assemblies provide power to the pumps since it is completely impossible to construct the standard "self-connected pumpstack".

 ######
##WWWW##  <-- "W" is the walls you construct in soil-layers, and "#" is soil. Aquifers don't leak diagonally, so the corners aren't necessary.
#W_pP*W#  <-- "_pP*" represents a pump which pumps from west from a "_" channeled hole and has a "*" gear-assembly powering it.
#WPXXpW#  <-- A pump here pumps from the north, and receives power from the same gear-assembly.           
#WpXXPW#  <-- 2x2 up/down staircase at core
#W*Pp_W#
##WWWW##  <-- This pump pumps from the east and is powered by the gear-assembly that powers its "pump from South" brother to its left.
 ###### 

For drainage, I construct the top-level like so:

.......|....  <-- Mechanical power brought in here ("|" is a N/S axle, and "." is open floor)
###....|.### 
#_Pp===*pP_#  <-- Pumps water from NE corner and transfers power below via the gear assembly.  Gears do not block fluids.
#_#|.XX.|#_#  <-- Axles transfer power to other pumps. "|" for n/s axles, and "=" for e/w axles.  Axles don't block fluids either.
#_#|.XX.|#_#
#_Pp*.._pP_#  <-- Leftmost pump holds a Gear Assembly for power transfer below, while rightmost pumps from a bare pit.
###......###  <-- Retaining wall for water being pumped back into aquifer to avoid floods.  "_" is a channeled-out tile, "#" is wall.
............

That's the "Lemurson Plan" for aquifer-penetration.  I suspect it may need some clarification, so feel free to ask questions about it.  I may have overlooked some important details.

Edit:
1st clarification: This method is NOT intended as a replacement for the construction of water-tight walls to seal up the hole you've made in the aquifer.  This is a way of draining the layer below you so that you CAN construct the walls.  The innovation here is that this keeps a constant profile, rather than a constantly shrinking hole that might run out too soon.
2nd clarification: I have modified the diagram to show the walls that you must construct in soil layers.

[Nan]

I know this topic is quite old, but I'm wondering how you could use that method to create a 3x3 stairway. Anyone have any ideas?

If you want a 3x3 stairway, the best way to do it is to initially punch any sized stairway through (1x2 is fine), then dig a drainage shaft, preferably to the caverns, but the map edge can work (but I strongly recommend caverns!). Now starting from below the aquifer, punch the 3x3 shaft up through the aquifer, and once it's all the way through, work from the top down and seal it with walls. Done right (dig out all the aquifer walls with downstairs, or channel them out, so the water falls straight through, and build the constructed walls on the downstairs/empty space) there will be no job suspensions at all, that is the benefit of this method.
Once I figured out this method, I started putting enormous skylights through 8-z level aquifers just for fun.

In fact the sheer power of drainage-based methods, means I usually don't use QM's method fully... I'm lazy and just put a 1x2 or 1x1 staircase down one of the slits, it's a lot less work, and if I want a bigger staircase, I just set up drainage and finish the job.

[Triaxx2]

It's also technically possible to then cut a shaft back up in another spot.

[AllThingsLive]

I know this topic is quite old, but I'm wondering how you could use that method to create a 3x3 stairway. Anyone have any ideas?

If you want a 3x3 stairway, the best way to do it is to initially punch any sized stairway through (1x2 is fine), then dig a drainage shaft, preferably to the caverns, but the map edge can work (but I strongly recommend caverns!). Now starting from below the aquifer, punch the 3x3 shaft up through the aquifer, and once it's all the way through, work from the top down and seal it with walls. Done right (dig out all the aquifer walls with downstairs, or channel them out, so the water falls straight through, and build the constructed walls on the downstairs/empty space) there will be no job suspensions at all, that is the benefit of this method.
Once I figured out this method, I started putting enormous skylights through 8-z level aquifers just for fun.

In fact the sheer power of drainage-based methods, means I usually don't use QM's method fully... I'm lazy and just put a 1x2 or 1x1 staircase down one of the slits, it's a lot less work, and if I want a bigger staircase, I just set up drainage and finish the job.

That's what I'm talking about! Thanks for this, this looks like it'll work very nicely

[Nagidal]

2x4 double-slit method

Edit 3: A faster way to get to the bottom aquifer level

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can power through every aquifer level except the last much more quickly by using this modified method, then switch to the above method for the last layer.

The setup is similar, but instead of channeling, dig down staircases for the slits, then up/down staircases below them that will fill with water. (Multiple levels shown, color-coded for convenience.)



Install the pump as before, but annoyingly you must remove the stairs from its input tile (on its level) for it to work. Pause/one-step until there is no water in the tile the pump is drawing from. If the layer revealed below (yellow) this is not an aquifer it should be dry during this frame (not tested), and you should switch to the original version. More on the conversion below. Similarly, if there is an aquifer but it looks like one of the slits won't drain into an aquifer based on the revealed material (yellow) you may want to switch methods and consider your options for dealing with the non-aquifer rock.




With the pump active, dig up/down staircases 1 level deeper into the aquifer. This will act as a drain.



Re-construct the pump facing the other direction, remove the blocking staircase and repeat.



Stop pumping. You don't need the pump any more for this level.The water will now simply fall down the staircases. If you build these walls in this order you may not get a single cancellation!



Carve out the center with staircases and mining (Don't carve staircases in the layer below!). The first of the 4 walls will push your builder all over, but it will get easier.



You're ready to conquer the next level! When you reach the last aquifer level, you can switch to the above method by building ramps in the slits. You can build the ramp directly on the carved up/down staircase, but remember dwarves can't use the ramp if there is a staircase directly above it. You may have to remove a ramp to build a wall in the slit as part of the above method.

Can you please explain this method in more detail with regards to the intermediate steps? I have spent nearly 5 hour trying to drill through the aquifers building either walls or doors (as suggested) and never made it because of some errors I made. At least now I know how to construct a wheel and power a pump with it. Then I saw this Edit 3, a faster method which uses draining the higher level aquifers to the lower level ones. I really can't follow as I read it.

Can you add a vertical scheme of the levels? The color coding does not tell me much as it is since I don't know which color is aquifer and which is not. Also, the transition between the speedy method and the normal one is something I'd like to have explained.

[hapes]

I'm on m phone, or I would be more detailed, but I will try to help.

If you take a grid of tiles, 4x6 like so:


abcdef
ghijkl
mnopqr
stuvwx


It is assumed that tiles hknq are mined out, probably from channelling on the z-layer above.

Mine and wall tiles prvwx.  Switch the pump, mine and wall mstu. Do not mine o.  On your pump level, remove the pump, build up/down stairs where the pump was, remove the other set of stairs, put the pump there.  Mine and wall gabci, switch pump, mine and wall defl.  Once all that is mined and walled, then mine out j and o, put up/down stairs at j and o, then remove walls at i and p.  put stairs, ta-da.