Okay, say I was using the supply grid. how would going underground work? Would A gear assembly be overtop the hole or a vertical axle with a gear assembly right before it?
Every mechanical device has power 'connectors', and you need to make sure that the connectors contact each other. These connectors aren't shown anywhere, but they're somewhat obvious:
- A gear connects in all cardinal directions (N, E, W, S) and top and bottom
- A horizontal axle connects on both ends (E and W or N and S), but not sideways or up/down
- A vertical axle connects on top and bottom only
- A water wheel connects on the middle of the long side
- A wind mill connects downwards in the center square
As far as I know, all power consumers act as gearboxes, i.e. they connect in all directions.
Also important is that all mechanical devices offer support to other devices, so you build an axle above a hole with a gear in it, and a wheel next to a gear.
So, suppose you have a windmill on z-0 and want to connect it to a screw pump five levels below and 5 to the right, you would build:
(side view)
MMM the wind mill
G gear assembly (not strictly necessary but useful to connect multiple mills later)
|
| 3 vertical axles
|
G----%% gear, one horizontal axle E-W length 4, pump
To connect multiple power consumers or users, connect them at the gear boxes or consumers.
For example, a water wheel and two wind mills powering a pump stack and a millstone:
(side view)
MMM MMM the wind mills
G---G gear assemblies and connecting axle
|
S | millstone
| |
G-G----%% gears, horizontal axles, pump
| %% pump connected to other pump, see wiki on pump stacks
| vertical axle connecting water wheel to gears
WG water wheel, gear
Note that all vertical connects* need the floor to be channeled, and hence usually depend on support from the device below it. So, the millstone cannot be ordered until the axle below it is, and if you ever decide to remove the gear directly below the millstone, the stone will be deconstructed as it loses support.
*) apparently, there is a bug in windmills that allows power to connect downwards through floor, but I've not tested this as I usually work with water wheels anyway.