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[TopHatSquid]

Should I smooth stone continuously until my engravers have a high skill before starting to engrave them? What skill level should I wait til?

Also, can floors under tables/chairs/beds/etc be smoothed or do I need to remove to smooth them? I know statues do, but that's about it.

[Neurovore]

I usually smooth up to accomplished or better before I assign engraving jobs (except for maybe LARGE rooms like dining halls).

Floors under most furniture will be smoothed and engraved by selecting a large area. The other exception to statues are workplaces. Only the 'walkable' areas of the workplace will be improved.

This may be considered an exploit, but you can also build constructed floors on top of smoothed/engraved floors. When the construction is removed, the floor reverts to cavern, allowing you to smooth and engrave again. With patience you can make sure all floor tiles in a noble's room are masterwork.

[Nitrousoxide]

Smoothing trains up the same ability that Engraving uses to determine the quality of the work, so it's best to smooth everything first (and with only a couple of dwarfs at most so the experience is concentrated), then start engraving.

Anything your dwarfs can stand on allows them to reach the floor underneath.  This means chairs, beds, cabinets, etc all allow you to smooth and engrave the stone under them.

[mcnmac]

Will dwarves like the wall/floor/object less if it is just engraved, and not smoothed?

[Puck]

No engraving without smoothing.

[mcnmac]

Ok thanks.

[Aspgren]

It's funnier when the legendary engravers work. They depict scenes of history, of elves starving, gobbos being slain, dwarves drowning, dwarves creating masterpieces or battling eachother. Historical accounts most marvelous!

... whilst an apprentice will make an engraving of a dog.

[pokute]

I smooth until the engraver hits legendary, which should happen in around 2-3 30x30 rooms

[Loki]

I personally just make ALL my extra dwarves smooth the fort, which gives me a bunch of dabbling engravers, and then wait for a fey mood to catch one of them, and bam!-- legendary engraver.

I don't think I've ever had a fort without a legendary engraver born from a fey mood, using this method.

[pokute]

Stone Detailing levels so fast, it almost seems like a waste for fey moods.

[RAM]

I have a half-dozen miner/detailers, they mine when I have a reason to deface the mountain, and they smooth on the time off, once they hit legendary then the entire fortress becomes an unrecognisable jumble of figures. But sometimes I need to engrave early, otherwise they may not have a good opportunity to engrave the floor of a reservoir... Does magma deface walls or just floors? How do I engrave roofs?

[Albedo]

Great. A regular Leonardo Dwarvinci.

[Puck]

If anything, you could engrave the floor on the z level above, but since you never actually see the ceiling in DF, I dont think there is ANY way of checking whether or not the engraving carries through.