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[higgypig]

Started a new fort on a volcano for easy magma access and general fun to play around with. Do volcano's output infinite magma or can they be drained? I ask because I want to experiment with magma flow around the fort ( as a defense measure and looks).

[Descan]

IIRC they don't drain, they'll continually spawn lava like a river or brook spawns water.

This might have changed, but I think they also spawn lava either from the very top of the pipe, or from random scattering throughout. Either way, they're effectively infinite.

[puke]

You should be able to drain it sufficiently to build inside, before it refills.

[Swonnrr]

I tried it once.
It does refill and fast.

Don't try to drain it from above, that won't work.
You will need to pierce a hole in the caverns so it can drain there and any refill will also go there.

Then you can build, and if you planned ahead, you can close the drain and let it refill.
Doing it from above with pumps IS possible, but require an insane amount of work, screw pumps and power, and most importantly dwarven lives.
Wich mean you will spend more time making slabs than building that fort.

Personally, if i go for an under-lava fort, it seems easier to seal a cavern (or dig one giant air bubble in the rock), build the fort there and then fill it with magma. (prerably from a magma tube or volcano).

[higgypig]

Wow, thanks for all the info guys! 

I dont plan on actually draining the volcano enough, I just want to irrigate some lava flow through the base to make a cool aesthetic, especially for the throne room. 

[Merendel]

ya if all you want is an unending supply of lava your good. as others have said you can drain it temporaraly but it will slowly refill back up to its level.  It takes a rather obsurd amount of effort to actualy depleat a level just by pumping or channled flows as it usualy refills faster than you can remove lava under normal situations.

[Xob Ludosmbax]

Yes, a volcano will refill, and quite quickly.  In short, each empty level of the caldera will have magma spawning periodically in a seemingly random tile.  So, the bottom levels will fill a lot quicker as the magma falls in and fills them.  The top levels will fill a bit more slowly because there is less or no magma flowing into them from above.

We did some !!SCIENCE!! on building inside a volcano without draining it first here:  http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=134907.0  The same methods can be adapted to drain a volcano, although it will still refill.

[GavJ]

In short, each empty level of the caldera will have magma spawning periodically in a seemingly random tile.  So, the bottom levels will fill a lot quicker as the magma falls in and fills them.  The top levels will fill a bit more slowly because there is less or no magma flowing into them from above.

I've drained my share of volcanoes (in the current version as far back as 2ish years ago, can't speak to before that though) and never seen any magma droplets falling through mid air from already emptied levels, as this would suggest. I've also build stuff in the airspace (the space normally filled with magma) over emptied volcanos, and if this were true, then magma 1/7's should have been constantly raining down and appearing on already-built surfaces in the drained area and killing my masons, etc, which does not happen.

My experience is much more consistent with simple filling from below in the same manner as one would expect as if by typical DF pressurized liquid, but just with specialized boundaries (the caldera edges): 1/7 tiles at a time pathing upward through the filled portion until they find an airspace and then staying.