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[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Does anybody have any ideas for a lever-operated way to switch a minecart from any direction to any direction? (A 3-way system would also be usable.)

It's an important component of the cunning plan I've been working on since November.

[ManaUser]

I haven't really played with minecarts too much, so take this idea with a grain of salt, but how about a "traffic circle" arrangement with a separate lever for each departure direction?

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Yeah. I'm thinking about some kind of 'Dwarven Roundabout'.

[gnidan]

You can switch destinations by using a roller. The track setup is a bit weird: see DFWiki Minecart page at http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Minecart#Switching

Basically, you have a T shape with your track:

Code: [Select]

   ║
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This shows the track for a minecart that enters on the left and exits on the top or the right.

Build a roller that pushes westward on the L square.

When the roller is off, nothing happens: the cart will derail and then continue traveling to the right.

When the roller is on, the cart derails, ends up on the L, and then the roller pushes it west, which then makes it turn northward.

Make sense?

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

I swear I'm gonna have to kill every single animal in the fort just to stop them from jamming the minecarts.

[gnidan]

I swear I'm gonna have to kill every single animal in the fort just to stop them from jamming the minecarts.

It's a real pain, but you can build walls around your minecart track and use pressure plate operated doors to let the carts in but not your breeding stock of grizzly bears.

[Dunamisdeos]

I swear I'm gonna have to kill every single animal in the fort just to stop them from jamming the minecarts.

It's a real pain, but you can build walls around your minecart track and use pressure plate operated doors to let the carts in but not your breeding stock of grizzly bears.

What about a raising bridge? Don't those act as tracks as well? Can you have a pressure plate that only opens for carts?

[gnidan]

What about a raising bridge? Don't those act as tracks as well? Can you have a pressure plate that only opens for carts?

They do. I haven't taken that approach personally, so I'm not sure what options that approach provides.

Pressure plates can be set to trigger on track (b-T-p-T). With the default weights, it triggers any time any cart hits the p.p., but not for creatures or fluid or anything else.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Walls are not an option. LOS is... important.

[gnidan]

Walls are not an option. LOS is... important.

ooo, well that sounds very... !!exciting!!

[khearn]

The trouble with using pressure plates and bridges is that they have a 100 tick delay before raising/lowering. So you have to have your bridge quite a ways after the pressure plate, to give it time to operate. And all that space is likely to be full of cats/dogs/wombats/war giant grizzly bears. Doors operate pretty much instantly.

[taptap]

Rollers, doors and high-speed carts, hatch covers over track ramps ... several good options to switch traffic (read this: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/User:Larix/MPL/1#Basics_of_track_switching).
You will need to construct more than a single switching mechanism. It isn't even very difficult, just hard to tell you something useful without knowing what kind of application you have in mind.

Statues are your friend to avoid meat on tracks.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

It's for what I hope to be the eventual version of this: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=156345.0

[taptap]

Two levers, three switchable elements. Put one switch down, put the other two switches each on one of the outgoing lines. Link lever 1 to the first switch, link lever 2 to both second line switches. Two levers have 4 states (leftleft,leftright,rightleft,rightright), each state corresponds to cart leaving on one of four lines.