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[Frogwarrior]

No matter how much I see it, putting words in !!exclamation points!! always cracks me up.

Anyway. I've developed a pretty safe method. No miners ever need to die, no chance of fire imps rising from below your workshops.

I have it in use in my current fortress on the DFMA here. Workshops are on level 16, magma piping on level 15, at the far north (sadly, I don't know how to do these "point of interest" things whatever they are...).

Basically, you find a level of the magma pipe that is smaller than the one immediately below it. Your workshops will be on this level, using magma from the larger one below.
Dig a ramp under where an impassable tile of one workshop will be, channel out the others, and dig around on the lower level to connect the plumbing. Then, dig from this plumbing to a spot right next to the magma on the lower, larger level. On the higher level, dig out to the same spot. Since the higher level of the magma pipe is smaller, you have not reached the magma and can safely dig a channel which will breach the wall in the lower level. Then, seal up the channel on the top level with a floor or wall to prevent fire imps from getting out.
Ta-da! Safe magma workshops.

I'm curious why the need to transport the magma so far from the tube?  What I've started doing is something much simpler:  like you said I find a section of the magma tube smaller than the one beneath it.  But instead of digging ramps, tunnel, etc., I just mine out rooms right next to the tube on the narrow level, so that I only need to channel out a single floor tile to reveal 1 square of magma.  Then I put the workshop on it so that that open magma is covered by an impassable workshop tile.

It seems to keep the fire imps out so far; maybe the problem is that fire vermin will teleport near my workshops?  I haven't seen any in the forge yet, although I have seen fire snakes wandering around anexploratory mining shaft on a lower level that tunneled too close to the magma tube.

That's a great idea! I'll have to try that.
However, on this map, if I'd put my workshops any closer to the magma they'd have had to be outside. That, or a couple levels down, and I was lazy. :-P

[zecro]

I just started a new fortress, and this design is untested, but I'm designing my fort to be a DORF CUBE, and these two are modified versions of the Decentralized Workshop Complex. The level on which the magma is on has a lot of storage, right below the smelters. There should be a grate (and a floodgate, for safety reasons) in the hallway leading to the actual magma chamber. The level above that has a tunnel that only serves to channel out ONE square. Why are there four access stairs to the Magma Distribution System? Because I wanted it to look like that. Also, adding them in later would be a huge and needless hassle. Oh yeah, the access stairs need doors or floodgates on the square that leads out to the square-of-fire and they should be magma-safe. I'm going to put hatches on the stairs for an additional layer of failsafe. Levers for floodgates (and grates... retractable grates make for Fun!) can be placed in the top level of the access stairways. Alternatively, dig out a control room in one of the access stairways.

Top layer:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bottom layer:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This design uses a lot of doors. Doors are cool. I use Dtil's digger utility to save these plans, so if anyone is interested, I could upload them somewhere.

[Shrike]

Especially if I'm doing a megaproject that'll take time and will eventually house the whole fort, I have  to agree with the earlier suggestion for just digging tunnels underneath near to the magma, and then having a fortification to filter out !!surprises!!.

What I do, once the magma pipe has been found, is:
1. Scan the entire z-span of the pipe, looking for sections where a higher level is smaller than the one below.

2. dig the main feed channel below all the way to the second-to-last obsidian wall. Smooth & carve fortifications in that wall.
3. Dig branch channels. Suggest the already mentioned Tunnel, blank,blank, tunnel for smelters, and if you want to put in walls around your forges and glass furnaces, a bit more spacing as appropriate.
 
4. breach the final wall (between the fortification & magma) by channeling from the workshop floor.
5. Quickly put floors over the open tiles, to keep out !!mobile toasters!!


If you need to transport magma a long distance or more quickly fill a reservoir, you can use a shunt, where you tap the magma feed from above, place a screw pump, and dig out a tunnel to another part of the desired fill area. If you just keep track of the magma level, you can stop using the pump once the whole area is 2/7 magma, and let the rest diffuse in. Then remove the shunt. Perfectly safe, fills fast, and you can expand it if you need to without too much trouble.

For extra security, putting a bend in the main magma feed will keep !!marshmellows!! from being thrown at your metalworkers.

[Atarlost]

No matter how much I see it, putting words in !!exclamation points!! always cracks me up.

Anyway. I've developed a pretty safe method. No miners ever need to die, no chance of fire imps rising from below your workshops.

I have it in use in my current fortress on the DFMA here. Workshops are on level 16, magma piping on level 15, at the far north (sadly, I don't know how to do these "point of interest" things whatever they are...).

Basically, you find a level of the magma pipe that is smaller than the one immediately below it. Your workshops will be on this level, using magma from the larger one below.
Dig a ramp under where an impassable tile of one workshop will be, channel out the others, and dig around on the lower level to connect the plumbing. Then, dig from this plumbing to a spot right next to the magma on the lower, larger level. On the higher level, dig out to the same spot. Since the higher level of the magma pipe is smaller, you have not reached the magma and can safely dig a channel which will breach the wall in the lower level. Then, seal up the channel on the top level with a floor or wall to prevent fire imps from getting out.
Ta-da! Safe magma workshops.

I'm curious why the need to transport the magma so far from the tube?  What I've started doing is something much simpler:  like you said I find a section of the magma tube smaller than the one beneath it.  But instead of digging ramps, tunnel, etc., I just mine out rooms right next to the tube on the narrow level, so that I only need to channel out a single floor tile to reveal 1 square of magma.  Then I put the workshop on it so that that open magma is covered by an impassable workshop tile.

It seems to keep the fire imps out so far; maybe the problem is that fire vermin will teleport near my workshops?  I haven't seen any in the forge yet, although I have seen fire snakes wandering around anexploratory mining shaft on a lower level that tunneled too close to the magma tube.

That's a great idea! I'll have to try that.
However, on this map, if I'd put my workshops any closer to the magma they'd have had to be outside. That, or a couple levels down, and I was lazy. :-P

I tried this.  Bad things happen.  Basically each magma source tile either periodically or at random intervals looks directly upwards until it comes to either an open tile, an obstruction, or the top of the pipe.  If it finds an open tile it generates magma on it.  This magma will splurt out of the holes dug above the tube in necks preventing you from building workshops unless you're lucky, and if you're unlucky the magma will spread out and destroy the workshops you've sucessfully built and injure or possibly kill the dwarves trying to build more. 

[Jude]

All I usually do is find a level of the magma pipe that's tiny, with a level that's huge underneath it. Then carve out my room for the forges on the tiny level so that it'll be over the magma in the huge level, and dig one channel per workshop (which will then be covered by one of the impassable squares of the workshop, preventing !!critters!! from popping up). It's annoying to dig because every square they dig out, they'll cancel because "warm terrain" but you just keep redesignating until they're done and you only have to go through the process once.

[Atarlost]

Yeah, but if they're also above the base of the pipe you get magma shooting up through the channeled holes until the workship gets built over them, and for those workshops that require architecture that can be difficult.