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[TSTwizby]

I've had a design for one of these floating around in my head for a while. I built a working prototype of the 3D printer part a few months ago in 34.02, but was having trouble handling the 'automatic' part, and decided to leave off another go until minecarts were in and working, as they make the required logic much simpler to mechanize. Tonight I finally got up off my butt (figuratively speaking; I am in fact sitting down while I type this) and got started.

Basic idea is to take a bunch of pumps in a row, have their inputs blocked off by floodgates which are themselves blocked off by a bridge. On the other side of the bridge is some sort of infinite magma supply. There are more rows of pumps, staggered so that the output of the highest row is one space away from the next highest, which is one away from the next highest and so on, so that a whole rectangle can be pumped.  In it's normal state, the bridge and floodgates are all closed and the pumps are unpowered. When the printer is turned on, the bridges are lowered, a set of levers corresponding to the actual space below is checked for input, then the corresponding floodgates open and the magma is given some time to flow through. The bridges are then raised, the pumps are quickly powered on and then off, and then the floodgates are all raised. The magma falls into a chamber at least two units larger on at least one side and at least one on all the others than the actual dumping area. Along that side on each z-level you want to print at is a pressure plate which is used in controlling the level of water in the chamber. After each layer is cast, the water level increases by one until the last layer of the print out is complete.

The setup is imperfect for several reasons (besides the obvious, that you can only print things that are formable by casting), the main one being that due to fluid weirdness, it is impossible to consistently form structures with unsupported parts on higher z-levels. There are ways around this (such as casting first the supported bits, then the bits connected to the supported bits and so on), but they are sufficiently computationally difficult to implement that I'm leaving that to figure out another time, though it is possible to cast them manually if you turn off the auto layering aspect of the printer (so it will only automatically print one layer at a time. You can therefore print the same layer multiple times, which lets you do what I suggested above). The other problem with this, which is unresolvable except by cheating and forming supporting struts which you intend to remove later, is that it is impossible to have hanging bits of your structure which are connected to a supported bit only on higher z-levels, for example the structure (seen from the side) below.

Code: [Select]

# = wall
_ = floor

###
# #
  #
__#_

I'll post some pictures once I have more to show, but the basic structure of each level of pumps is shown below.

Code: [Select]

%% = pump
* = gear assembly     ~ = magma
- = bridge                   X = floodgate

#~~#*#
#~# %%
#~-X##
~~##*#
~# %%
~-X##



Things will probably move a bit slowly at first, but once I get the fort's basic infrastructure up and running and get some migrants production should go faster. I'm going to try to make a 20x20x10 printing area, but we'll see how much I end up finishing.

[Ivir_Baggins]

*head explodes*

[Phillammon]

...wow...

[Di]

So, in a short, there's a large massive of pumps capable of dumping magma onto water in configurable pattern which would allow to cast figures narrowing to the top?
While dorfy I think simply casting a block and carving needed form would be more effective.
Also, how about minecart based printer? Track stops can be set to dump contents without slowing cart, are lever controlled and will only dump 2/7 of magma.

[MarcAFK]

For a second i thought this was related to minecarts, But reading the OP i see it's just as awesome without them.

[TSTwizby]

So, in a short, there's a large massive of pumps capable of dumping magma onto water in configurable pattern which would allow to cast figures narrowing to the top?
While dorfy I think simply casting a block and carving needed form would be more effective.
Also, how about minecart based printer? Track stops can be set to dump contents without slowing cart, are lever controlled and will only dump 2/7 of magma.

More effective, yes. More awesome? No. If I liked doing things the easy way, I wouldn't play DF. I do not understand your suggestion about minecarts. Are you suggesting that, rather than pump the magma into position, I instead have a bunch of magma-filled minecarts run by and dump the magma into the water? I'm not entirely sure how dumping works with minecarts, but wouldn't that just dump some magma on the track which would then run off in one of the three random directions you'd need to leave open in order to not block off some squares from being filled?

For a second i thought this was related to minecarts, But reading the OP i see it's just as awesome without them.

What the minecarts are for is making a simpler time-based trigger than one using water and pumps. Basically just push it down a hill, then have it run across some pressure plates in order. Getting it to reset is a little trickier, but not by very much.

[Di]

I'm not entirely sure how dumping works with minecarts, but wouldn't that just dump some magma on the track which would then run off in one of the three random directions you'd need to leave open in order to not block off some squares from being filled?

Nope, during construction track stops can be set to dump contents of minecart that passes through them to one side, they also can be set to lowest friction. You can activate and deactivate track stop with a lever, deactivated track stop effectively disappears from rails. Instead of each line of pumps you'd need one rail with lots of track stops.
Printing speed would be lower but I guess printing could be more accurate.

[Murgy]

Also, how about minecart based printer? Track stops can be set to dump contents without slowing cart, are lever controlled and will only dump 2/7 of magma.

Generally printers that can produce three dimensional objects are also able to produce two dimensional objects. 

[sjm9876]

This is so ridiculously over complicated and unnecessary.
I'm impressed  O_O

[expwnent]

This is possibly the most ambitious DF project since the dwarfputer. Best of luck to you.

[TSTwizby]

Thanks. It won't be nearly as bad I hope, based on my prototype, until I try to correct the problems I mentioned in the first post. I still don't have anything nice to look at, having been too busy going after metal and building a set of windmills to power the thing once I finish it, but I think I could have the first layer finished later tonight.

Nope, during construction track stops can be set to dump contents of minecart that passes through them to one side, they also can be set to lowest friction. You can activate and deactivate track stop with a lever, deactivated track stop effectively disappears from rails. Instead of each line of pumps you'd need one rail with lots of track stops.
Printing speed would be lower but I guess printing could be more accurate.

Would the stops then always dump the magma directly to the left/right/wherever, or would they have a chance of dumping it in any of the three squares in that direction? I've been using pumps because even though they are fairly expensive resource-wise, they have perfect accuracy and are almost instantaneous. The only benefit that I can see (which is large enough that it might be feasable, but small enough that I'm not going to change my whole plan now) is that it would require much less material and wouldn't need the insanely huge power supply. On the other hand, it would need a really convoluted track system to get it to reset and refill. Also, I don't think I have iron on this map, which renders the whole thing kind of moot, though I guess if there are goblins I could get some that way.

[ab00]

Yes, anything inside a minecart that goes over a trackstop set to dump in a certain direction will only go into the tile that is orthogonally adjacent in that direction. The one problem that I see is that the 2/7 liquid that is dumped will spread out into two 1/7 tiles, possibly creating an unwanted tile of obsidian.

[TSTwizby]

Shouldn't that only happen once the magma hits a solid surface? By dumping it directly onto water, you remove that problem. Good to know about the dumping though. I might try to build a much smaller printer using that, just to see how well it works.

[ab00]

Ah, I must have misunderstood. Dumping it onto water would work perfectly.

[GreatWyrmGold]

If you feel REAL ambitious, make it controllable by a seiries of levers.
For instance:

Code: [Select]

+i+i+i++i+i+i+++
+i+i+i++i+i+i++i
+i+i+i++i+i+i+++
Each i is a lever. Each lever corresponds to a tile in a 3x3x2 block that would be filled in, except the one to the far right, which activates the whole thing. Dwarfputing complex not shown.