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[Sukasa]

Levers...  How do you guys keep track of which levers do what?

Myself, if it's just one or two I colour-code the levers whenever possible.  If I can't, or if I have a lot of levers, I normally just pull out a piece of paper, draw the room the levers are kept in (I always try to keep levers grouped together, except in cases where it's defense-related), and label each individual lever on paper.

SO!  How do you guys handle your levers, or do you avoid using mechanics?

[Lyrax]

I like to keep levers near the stuff they affect, and not bunch them up into control rooms.  In fact, I don't have any control rooms in my current fortress.  I have a 'defense mode: on' lever in my meeting/dining hall, and each well has a lever next to it that controls a floodgate.  Then, I've got another lever way out in the middle of nowhere that controls a floodgate nearby.  I shouldn't ever need to pull that lever in a hurry.

[kaypy]

I start by laying things out vaguely logically- the lever in the top right links to the bridge in the northeast, etc.

Then when I actually need to use them, I make a guess, set it to pull, then use the relinking trick to double check. Then if necessary I cancel and guess again.

notes:
1) "the relinking trick": If lever a is linked to object b, then b wont show up in the list of stuff you can link a to.

2) I pull and double check because if I check first then I forget which lever I was checking...

[JoRo]

I make all my levers out of different materials.  Felsite lever: main bridge.  Microcline: side bridge.  Cinnabar: DO NOT PULL THIS.

[DJ]

I have several colour-coded control rooms. For example, light blue (microcline) is the water system control room. Here I have levers for all of my floodgates. In front of each lever is a piece of constructed floor of coloured rock. Every floodgate has a piece of constructed wall next to it made of the same rock as the floor next to that floodgate's corresponding lever.

The nice thing about this system is that it can be easily expanded. If you need more different codes, use more "bits". So you could have a cobaltite-felsite-olivine lever, where order of colours is important.

[AlienChickenPie]

I usually have a separate control room for each system. Within the control room, levers are arranged in a way that corresponds to the connected mechanisms' locations.
In the future, I plan on building cute little small scale models (or at least illustrative flooring patterns) of the area being controlled, complete with levers where the mechanisms should be.

[Istrian]

I build my levers right above (or underneath) the thing they are supposed to control. Of course I always make sure these levers are safe to reach and safe to come back from (except the noble dis-integrators), i.e : make sure that the lever controlling the bridge which leads out of my fortress will not be overrun by goblins by the time a dwarf can pull it.

[Erom]

I usually don't bother trying to get my mechanic to use a specific stone to make mechanisms, so I build floor next to the levers and color-code the floor tiles instead of the levers themselves.

[Chrispy]

For the more complicated setups, I usually like to set off autonomous chain reactions, using an initial lever, and magma and water flows to set of pressure plates at logical times.  Makes making obsidian much more hands off, although I did lose a quarter of my workforce in building it.  Their losses were acceptable losses.  

The most fun in a fortress I've ever had, was when I had a rather large branching set of lava flow chains, interconnected so that their end pattern was very unpredictable, yet the lava made them slow enough.  Tied that to my active defenses, and have fun when spikes randomly pop up when the traders come around, and retract when you are under siege.  Randomly opening and closing bridges and doors made it fun too.  Muhahahahaha.

So yeah, I usually leave mine unlabeled.  It's more fun that way.  That, and having every lever do multiple things.  No matter what it's main purpose is.  Then you get to play the "I'm not sure how to open this door." game.  

[Kogan Loloklam]

I do mine with Mechanism Quality and type. I might have quite a few levers in my fortress. Pressing T I can find out what something is made of, and what kind of mechanisms are in it. I pair any mechanisms I have, making them the same stone and quality. This on top of color coding allows me quite a few options involved. When I reach the max a room can be diverse, I build another Lever room. Using the hotkey system, I can name each of my lever rooms.

[Sukasa]

I like your method Chrispy.

Actually, I barely use floodgates myself, instead I normally just use pit-and-pump setups to control water flow- I also just don't have anywhere to actually use floodgates either- I've never really had anywhere I /can/ use them

[bigmcstrongmuscle]

I keep a text file open in notepad for each fortress. Crude, but effective, and it also has a checklist of "things to do" for when I reload.

[I3erent]

I write notes in unreacheable black tiles near the lever by designating them for mining.

[Pwnage_Incarnate]

I organize my levers based on location and position.  Each type of function has it's own control room.  For example, the front gate (and corresponding room-flooding trap) has a control room, with the lever in the back operating the inner doors, the lever in the front, the outer doors, and the lever in the middle, the hatch in the ceiling connected to a lake.
Also, each farm's irrigation system has it's own control room, each deathtrap room has it's own control room, each magma channel has it's own control room, etc...

[greenest banana]

I keep all my levers in the designated meeting area. That way, any lever I designate to be pulled is activated within seconds and I don't need to bother with some igor isolated in a control room. I build any really important levers with brightly colored mechanisms, and the other ones I just remember (Since it's no big deal if I get it wrong anyway, live and learn).

Actually, I find that organizing the levers in chronological order works best for me. I can remember when I build partiular constructions, so I just start building levers at the top of the meeting room and work my way to the left and down over time.