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[I Am Enormous]

I'm currently getting back into Dwarf Fortress and have kinda gotten obsessed with.. Symmetry and fortress layout aesthetics. For my sleep area layout I've used the Vaniver's Greek Cross design and essentially just made a two floor apartment with 3 tile rooms. (Here's the image if you're curious about how it works http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/images/3/3b/VaniverGreek48.png )

However, at the moment, I'm kind of stumped on how to go about designing my stockpile/workshop area. I considered just digging out a good chunk of a Z-level and just slamming workshops with similar tasks right next to each other, but I'm worried that might not be efficient OR aesthetically pleasing.

So, I was wondering, could you guys post pictures and/or give examples of your own SUPER EFFICIENT AND AESTHETICALLY PLEASING WORKSHOP/STOCKPILE AREAS?!

PLEEEASE!

[Avelon]

For my workshop area I go for efficiency rather than aesthetics. My craftsdwarves never have hauling labours enabled after the first migrant wave, for instance.

I make one large stockpile area (which actually consists of 9 different stockpiles adjacent to one another) and designate the most relevant item types to each one. So in the upper left I might have my stockpile for leather goods, at the top I'll have a stockpile for precious stones, in the upper right wood, etc.

The relevant workshops are built into the walls in 3x5 rooms, with a 6-tile stockpile next to each. Why? So I can dictate the exact type of stone my mason uses to make doors by setting that stockpile to hold only it, or ONLY use fish bones for bone bolts. I'm slightly anal about such things and am known to chasm the first item the mason makes if he picks up the wrong kind of stone.

This way I can ensure that the workshop area is out of the way from the sleeping area, highly efficient, and will not have too much traffic - raw materials are available right there and haulers will bring in new items as needed, without crossing paths with the craftsdwarf.

As for the workshops themselves, the butcher's workshop is always right behind the tannery, which is next door to the leatherworks. The smelter is next to the forge and furnace, etc. For me, the workshop area is more symbiotic than symmetrical. But that's just me. It's relatively easy to make a symmetrical layout with the general idea of symbiosis in mind.

[AncientEnemy]

this is actually quite similar to my fortress designs, here's my current fort:

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-4825-threewinds

i tend to build a cross of 5 adjacent 9x9 rooms. stockpiles in the north and south wings, workshops on the east 4 to a level (one in each 'corner' of that room with related functions, i.e. kitchen still tanners and butchers in one room), and social areas (sparring areas/dining/barracks) on the west. then as my fortress expands i begin building the more expansive noble rooms on higher levels. that map shows a general idea of what i'm talking about, although it's somewhat cluttered (that cluster of workshops on the lower level is a bunch of glass furnaces set to collect sand to have enough to supply my legendary glassmaker) as my fort was much less organized then.

i find using a relatively small (when it comes to x/y dimesnions) that spans multiple z levels cuts down on alot of hassles, since in absolute terms even the two most 'distant' points in my fort are something like 30 tiles apart. 9x9 rooms also seem to be my magic number, odd numbers let you subdivide things very neatly, such as having 5 workshops in an X


i also try to keep my workshops as close to their relevant stockpiles as possible. the carpenter shop is right next to the wood, with the furniture pile just south of that. then the still is adjacent (Albiet one level down) to the furniture pile, with the food pile to the north. the butchers shop is near the bone pile, with the craftsdwarf shop adjacent 1 level above. the piles of captured narrow armor/lavish meals are right next to the trade depot, the stockpile of my building materials is at the base of the tower where they will be used, etc

[Skorpion]

Generally, I stick the major workshops and the main stockpiles in the first Z-level, on either side of the main corridor, with extensions dug out as needed for both. Not super-efficient OR tidy, but I shift things around as I get industries going bigger.

For example, once I get farming and hunting going up, I stick the bone-crafting shops in next to the main bone/shell stockpile, move the kitchens, tanning shops, and fish processors into a side room together to contain miasma outbreaks, and build a whole load of butcher shops on the surface to manage peak capacity of dead animals. (I'm currently up to eight, and able to process a rhesus macauque swarm in about 10 minutes, which is about the time it takes to have them wrestled to death.)