Drop shafts are very simple. (Although I have one that isn't working... the other one is working fine now.)
Uses so far:
- Dropping clay from the surface down to the magma kilns
- Dropping metal ores, charcoal/coal blocks down to the forges
- Dropping economic rocks down to the magma forges
Notice that in order to drop from top to bottom, you'll have to scout out the location of your magma sea, all your caverns, and find a drop shaft. I actually created (2) side-by-side shafts to start which gives me some flexibility.
....................
#####........WWWW...
###S=========+SPW...
#####........WWWW...
.............L......
....................
# is stockpile
S is constructed track stop
= is the carved track
+ is door, hooked to the lever (L)
P is the pit
1. You need a hole to drop stuff into. I usually position this somewhere that I can drop a 1x1 pit from top to bottom in one designation. Same rules apply to digging other pits, you need to do it as a channel (d-h) from top to bottom and make sure that very bottom tile has no designations below it.
Note: This is just a hole. You don't need to setup a "pit" zone.
2. From the drop shaft, carve out a track (d-T) from the tile on the edge of the hole to a convenient place for a stockpile to collect things from the local area. In the case of clay, this might be very near your clay collection zone. In the case of metal/economic ore, this rail head might need to be near your central stairs. For charcoal production, you might run a rail head over near your wood furnace.
As you look (k) along the track you should see it with designations like "Track (E)" for the left end, then a bunch of "Track (EW)" and finally a "Track (W)" at the right end by the pit.
Straight E/W or N/S runs are easiest to start with. Stay away from ramps or bends to start.
3. Create a stockpile that wraps around the rail head. Erase any stockpile designations that overlap with the track/stop (for neatness sake). Set the stockpile up with wheelbarrows and the proper designations. My stockpiles are usually 3x5 as shown. Once setup, you should see dwarves filling up this stockpile with the goods to be put down the chute.
4. Build a door and hook it to a lever. Once built, throw the lever to force the door open. When the door is in place, carts cannot move down the track. When the lever opens the door, carts can be pushed to the pit edge. This gives you manual control over whether items will be raining down on the heads of dwarves at the bottom of the shaft.
5. Create a second stockpile in the tile at the bottom of the shaft which accepts everything that you're throwing down the hole. You may also want to place a door at the bottom which you can lock to keep dwarves from touching anything in the stockpile.
6. Construct a track stop (b-C-S) at the stockpile end on the dead-end bit of track. Note that you *must* set the track stop settings before placing it. In the case of a stop that pulls from a stockpile, you must have "Dump = No" (use the "d" key) and the friction doesn't matter.
7. Construct the track stop (b-C-S) at the other end by the pit. Note that you must use the "d" key to change the dump direction to dump stuff from the track stop tile into the open pit.
Now for the tricky bit, the route. Note that routes are not directly tied to tracks, they are a separate system of designating what happens at the points you define. Naturally, you should line up your route definitions with the track stops and tracks that you have laid down.
A. Open the route menu with "h" then use "r" to create a new route, then "n" to give it a name (such as "Chute Stones").
B. Hit "v" to assign a vehicle to this route. Select a minecart that is not yet assigned to a route.
C. Move your mouse cursor the location where you built the track stop at the stockpile. Hit the "s" key to create a new stop. Use the +/- keys to highlight this new stop and change the nickname (such as "Pickup").
D. Hit "Enter" on the first stop to go into settings. Press "s" to link to a stockpile, move your mouse cursor over the stockpile and hit the "p" key to finish. There should now be an entry that says "Take from: XYZ Stockpile #999".
E. Hit "Enter" again while inside the stop settings menu to "Set desired items". You will need to match (or exceed) the settings of the stockpile that you are pulling from. So if the stockpile only accepts Dolomite Stone, you could have the stop's desired items set to allow all stones.
F. You now need to set your departure conditions for the origin track stop. Departure conditions have (4) parts:
- Whether it will be pushed, ridden or guided.
- The direction that the cart will depart.
- When.
- How full the cart has to be.
For the track stop at the stockpile in the above diagram:
- Guide east immediate when full of desired items.
- Guide east in 14 days when at least 50% of desired items.
- Take from Stone Stockpile #999.
G. Move your mouse cursor the location where you built the track stop at the pit's edge. Hit the "s" key to create a new stop. Use the +/- keys to highlight this new stop and change the nickname (such as "Dump").
H. For this stop, remove all existing departure conditions and create one that simply says:
- Guide west immediately when empty of desired items.
At this point, your dwarves should start loading the cart, then guide it down the tracks. When you look at your route screen, you should see:
Chute Stones
- Pickup 0% V
- Dump
I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between various colors of "V" symbols other then "green is good". I'm also not sure why my other track isn't working even though the dwarves loaded it up with goods.