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[Namfuak]

I actually made my most recent fort knowing that it was going to be in between the last cavern layer and the magma sea.  The main problem is that you need a big path to allow traders to come down (I know they use stairs, but I always play like they have wagons so I don't go out of practice).  Unfortunately, because of the way ramps work you can't just dig channels next to each other, there has to be continuity.  So, I built my path down like this:

Code: [Select]

R=up ramp r=down ramp -=floor X=wall
z+3        z+2           z+1      z+0
RRR       RRRrrr       rrr        ------
---         ------         ---        ------
rrr         ------         RRR      ------
             ------                     RRRrrr
And repeat ad nauseum until you get to the height you want.  In theory you could go across the map before you did a switchback, but I dislike having single-tile doorways or having doors next to ramps, so I only had things going off of it on the switchbacks.  The one bad thing is that this does take some space, so you may need to modify it or do some walling when you are going through the caverns.  On the other hand, it is easy to go from one side to the other on one z-level without having to modify anything, so you can build floors over caverns when you hit them and move over to a large black area.

EDIT:  Ugh, the code came out all wonky, it should make enough sense if you assume everything is supposed to line up.

[Astramancer]

I like to use this as my central spiral:

Code: [Select]

R=up ramp r=down ramp -=floor X=wall

XRRRX   XrrrX
X...XXXXX...X
X...........X
X...........X
X...........X
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

And just it's it's mirror for every other level.  I like it because I can plop this down in the middle of my map, and use 3-tile hallways branching in all cardinals without messing up my ramps.  It's pretty compact, too, so you can fit it into some fairly small holes in the caverns.

[zilpin]

Spiral Ramp (view from top):

Code: [Select]

(z 0)
RRRX
---r
---r
---r

(z-1)
Xrrr
R---
R---
R---

(z-2)
r---
r---
r---
XRRR

(z-3)
---R
---R
---R
rrrX

X can alternatively be a stair.
The X stacks on top of each other, so the overall layout will be 7x7 tiles.

This is bad for pathfinding, since it has so any turns.
By keeping you trade depot isolated (like it always should be), only dwarves trying to get to the depot should ever use it, so pathing usually won't be a problem.