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[teh sam]

I have a grand dining hall dug out, but what I want in the center is a waterfall.  The water will be channeled a few layers above to stop above the center of this pool and then channeled straight down.  What I want is a pool at the bottom that will fill and then the excess will drain over into channels that will go down a few layers and off the map.  The issue I can't figure out is how to make the excess drain off without flooding the dining area.  I could wall off all but a few exit parts that drain to grates, but I wanted it open across the length of the pool.  I planned to channel the pool area (probably 2 levels deep just because) so that the surface of the water comes right up to floor level.  Too bad there aren't half-height walls...

Any master designers want to impart some wisdom?

[Button]

Pressure plate. Set it to open at a water level of 3, link it to a door to a draining channel.

I'd recommend linking another pressure plate to a door up top, set to a water level of 6, just in case. And another door linked to a lever so you can shut off the falls for maintenance.

Layer below the dining hall looks like this:

Code: [Select]

.........
...   ...
...   ...
... x ...
.....O...
..... ...


[Ashery]

Edit: God damnit. I missed this one important bit of your post:

...so that the surface of the water comes right up to floor level.

Leaving my post in here because I spent the time writing it, but doing the above requires a degree of precision with flowing fluids that I'm not at all comfortable with.

As any post of mine that deals with flowing water, I'm compelled to make an unrelated suggestion:

Use diagonal bends at the top of the waterfall to prevent pressure from being a potential problem. It doesn't behave as it does in reality and so it's better to eliminate all potential risk by killing it completely than attempting to guess how it'll behave in practice.

Personally, I never design waterfalls that collect near areas that receive any traffic. That is to say, all waterfalls end in their source cistern. I do this for precisely the reason you brought up: It's a pain to deal with the water pooling after it falls. There are definitely systems that *can* be used, but I'm simply more comfortable/confident in the multiple layers of defense built into my cisterns. If I'm going to design a waterfall with water nearby, I'll just put in a non-flowing pool and leave the waterfall to continue on it's way to the cistern.

With that being said, you do have a couple of possible options, but I have nothing to gauge how effective they'd be in practice:

Option 1 (Probably the safest of the options): Drop the pool down a z-level.

Side view:

Code: [Select]

    ~   
##  ~  ##
#~~~~~~~#
#~#####~#

Water will definitely pool up in the buffer level, but with adequate drainage it shouldn't* overflow. You could also add additional drainage on the buffer zone if you feel like playing it even safer (Although, more realistically, if the extra drainage were to be used, it'd simply mean that you either have insufficient draining on the bottom level or your plumbing has gotten clogged somewhere).

Option 2: Remove the buffer level in the above option and install grates surrounding the pool.

Side view:

Code: [Select]

  _    ~    _
## #~~~~~~~# #
## #~#####~# #

The overflow will definitely be used, but surrounding the pool completely should* prevent the dining room proper from being muddied.

*Not actually guaranteed to work. I am not responsible for any drowned dwarves or any damage that occurs as a result of any friends or family members of drowned dwarves tantrumming.

[teh sam]

Thank you!  I don't know why I didn't think of that.  Time to queue up 20 or 30 grates. 

[Hamiltonz]

I found a strange behavior that might still work.

When you link two pools (at the same level) with a u-bend, the end where water flows in will hold water levels above 0/7 while the other will stay at 0/7 until the input is at 7/7, then the level in the output pool will increase.

You can use this in your dining room.  All the water that falls will immediately teleport over to the output pool, and when the waterfall is turned off the pool in the dining room will stay at 7/7 as long as no one drinks from it.