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[Shakma]

For smoothing, it is good to remember that aquifers will not release water diagonally, but you can smooth diagonally.  So if you have a stone aquifer and can get a rough shape dug out, you can always smooth and dig it to a square by smoothing everything, then digging out any corners, then smoothing again, repeat.  A nice way to open up a decent area is to find an ore vein that you can get into and then smooth/dig it to a larger square opening. 

[decius]

Using magma isn't half bad though, breaching 3 aquifer levels would require just a 5x5 cutout on the top floor, but the construction costs for getting magma into place safely can be painful, especially for a fortress that may have no access to new stone (other than obsidian, obviously) until after the aquifer is breached.

If you have magma, you don't have to "breach" the aquifer. Just dig out the entire aquifer and turn it all into obsidian, then mine out the new obsidian layer.

[Brodiggan]

Using magma isn't half bad though, breaching 3 aquifer levels would require just a 5x5 cutout on the top floor, but the construction costs for getting magma into place safely can be painful, especially for a fortress that may have no access to new stone (other than obsidian, obviously) until after the aquifer is breached.

If you have magma, you don't have to "breach" the aquifer. Just dig out the entire aquifer and turn it all into obsidian, then mine out the new obsidian layer.

While I admire your quite dwarven industrious instincts, I'm not sure digging out an entire layer of the map would be the easier solution for most people. Especially if they're starting a new fortress, and trying to get through the aquifer quickly so they can gain access to stone/metal (other than obsidian).

Edit: Also, you'll have to let the magma in on the level above the aquifer, or it will just react immediately with the water, form obsidian, and stop spreading. Since you have to nearly fill the level above as well, you're likely to have quite a bit of lava left over afterwards that you have to deal with.

[Shrike]

Actually, in playing around with Temperature off, just the heat of magma can dry out an adjacent aquifer tile.

If you want to use magma, you could do so in stages. Dig into the aquifer using ramps (your miners will get swimmer ability from this, which is very useful, and not die because they'll be adjacent to a ramp to get out). Go one line of ramps at a time. Fill it with magma, then carve a basin into the obsidian, and another basin into the aquifer. Fill the obsidian with magma, pump it into the aquifer, and continue. Time consuming, but you could theoretically build your entire fort in city blocks of obsidian, surrounded by magma moats.

Hm. I think I'll have to try this. Sure it's been done before, but not by me. Heh.

Spanning all z-levels and every diggable tile, an obsidian city. I think that'd count as the most mega of megaprojects, since you'd have to dig for the bottom first, Clear out at least two levels....
Hm. I like it.  Time to start genning this thing.