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[Dwaref]

Below is an image of my exploration shafts. I use these to look for clusters of gems etcetera.
They're a pain to 'd'esignate though. Either i place each manually, or i mark a large area, and then using 'x' remove bands horizontally and vertically until i get the shape i want.
For all this, all it amounted to was some platinium.

I'm thinking that you should be able to specify a pattern in the designation menu. Let's say you specify an area first(X,Y), and then mark within that area which areas are affected by the designation. The default 'd'esignation area should be a 1x1 square, which is marked.

It'd look like:
X

My pattern in such a system(where 'o's are unmarked) would look like:
Xoo
ooo
ooo

So if you marked up a 2*4 area with the default pattern it'd look like:
XXXX
XXXX

With mine:
XooXooXooXoo
oooooooooooo
oooooooooooo
XooXooXooXoo
oooooooooooo
oooooooooooo

It'd be a powerful tool for the otherwise laborsome designating of repetitive patterns.
Using it, you could also place up/down staircase designations by pattern, and make exploratory shafts downwards for any distance with minimal effort, after you've placed a down staircade by pattern at the top.

[Zulaf]

Well there is AutoHotKey you can find it in the utilities section on the wiki.

For shafts like yours i just hold the mouse button and go down afew levels then it paints em on the way down.

Something like this would be good for DF without having to use AHK though.

[Derakon]

Patterned designations have been requested before.

For what it's worth, in future you can leave one tile unrevealed between shafts, since clusters are always at least either 2 tiles wide or 2 tiles tall. Also, if you want lots of gems, look for metamorphic rock. Also, it's worth considering reducing your personal time investment and making your dwarves dig more.

[Dwaref]

Also, it's worth considering reducing your personal time investment and making your dwarves dig more.

Normally i mine everything out, but when moods come-a-knocking, i want to speed things up. I can just pause the game and spend the time it takes to mark this up when i feel like.
Thanks for the rock type and vein size tips, but are you absolutely positive about the vein sizes?

I have found small clusters who look like 'plus' marks for aluminum, which would slip through a system of shafts every four spaces. One such is seen on the Wiki. There is also a small gem cluster there which would barely be detected on a 4x4.
The information on small clusters state that it is anywhere of 1 to 9 spaces on a 3x3 grid, which i don't know is accurate or not.

[Silverionmox]

I have found small clusters who look like 'plus' marks for aluminum, which would slip through a system of shafts every four spaces. One such is seen on the Wiki). There is also a small gem cluster there which would barely be detected on a 4x4.

Shift the next row of shafts one or two spaces up or down. Alternatively, leave three spaces on the x-axis, but only two on the z-axis in between the shafts.

[Impaler[WrG]]

The chance of missing a + shaped cluster is so vanishingly small it's not worth tightening the mining pattern for.  Only a small number of clusters will have that shape and they would then need to be centered on exactly the 'blind spot" to escape detection.  I estimate your going to miss less then 1% of clusters in that way.

[Dwaref]

Small clusters occupy 3x3 areas, but tiles containing gems range from 1 to a full 9.
Even if i would tighten the pattern and just leave one tile wide black strips horisontally or vertically, there's a chance of missing up to a 1x3 section of gems.

I'm too OCD to put a system like this into action, if it doesn't strike 100% of the available gems.