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[Urist McDruid]

How can I tell if an area will have sand before I embark? Any simple tricks?

[Coalwalker]

If by "tricks" you mean "magic tricks" then DFHack's prospect command will help.

[Tevish Szat]

To Guarantee Sand Easily:
If even the tiniest corner of your embark is in a Sand Desert, you will of course have sand somewhere on your embark.  If you gen a large, patchwork world, you're more liable to get a sand desert somewhere next to a more desirable biome.

To Check For Sand without DFHack:
Embark with nothing but one or more copper picks and, potentially, skills on your dwarves, particularly miner.  Loo(k) at the surface, and do an exploratory channel/stair through the soil layer or layers of each biome present in your embark.  Abandon.  If you found the sand you wanted, reclaim that fortress with a properly outfitted team.  You could also bring a lot of supplies in the Survey Team and not offload them from the wagon, at which point the settler team would have those supplies... but I personally consider that cheating.  Buying nothing with the Survey Team gets you 3 logs and picks, tops (the picks probably walk off with the miners that abandoned).  If your prospective fort site is only over a single biome, it shouldn't take more than a minute real time from unpausing to having completed your survey.

[JAFANZ]

When using the site finder, setting Drainage to "High" won't garauntee sand, but it becomes fairly likely (& I wouldn't be surprised if the lower values preclude it).

[javierpwn]

Ooooooor, you can bring a single bag of sand on embark, (d)ump the sand(not the bag though)
And you now have an infinite source of sand at a desirable location in your fort!

[JAFANZ]

Ooooooor, you can bring a single bag of sand on embark, (d)ump the sand(not the bag though)
And you now have an infinite source of sand at a desirable location in your fort!

Really?

Now that is nifty.

Can you also use it as a substitute for irrigation?

[wierd]

An interesting idea... bagged sand on a pure stone, waterless biome...

I might test that.

[Dangerous Beans]

Ooooooor, you can bring a single bag of sand on embark, (d)ump the sand(not the bag though)
And you now have an infinite source of sand at a desirable location in your fort!

 
i don't suppose you can use a constructed clay floor as a clay source too?

[javierpwn]

Actually, I thought of the wrong way of doing it, the way I said creates a sand contaminant....

Dumping the sand bag under an atom smasher leaves the sand intact however!

[wierd]

So, the process is this:

Bring 1 bag of sand. (Any kind)
Build an atom smasher. (Requires several stone, at least 2 mechanisms)
Dump the bag (not the contents) under the smasher.
Smash the filled bag.

this in order to create 1x1 tile of sand, at the destruction of the bag?

[Necrisha]

If you're on a map with no sand and like green/clear/crystal glass objects it's worth it. especially if it's the last one sitting around that you never bothered to dump.

[Tevish Szat]

I'll have to remember this... I've been trying to build a magma pump stack on an map with neither sand nor iron, and have been trading for bag after bag of sand from every caravan to make green glass tubes and corkscrews.  Looks like I should buy a few, atomsmash them, and have a sand collection zone.

[javierpwn]

The only bad thing is...... Moss might still grow on it.....

Testing may be in order, especially if dumped onto constructed floors

[crekit]

Can someone confirm this? I'm not believing it just of yet.

[javierpwn]

Sand or dye in bags doesn't get erased while the bag does, creating a small pile of sand or dye on the ground. Similarly, contaminants (eg blood, vomit) are not erased when a bridge descends on them.

DF wiki quote!