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[vassock]

The problem I always have is making stockpiles. I want stockpiles to be somewhere between the surface (where I keep my farms) and the bottom (where the magma forges are), but the mined out rocks/ore is always in the way. Has anyone come up with a solution other than mass quantum dumping, which requires tons of labor?

[Fleeting Frames]

I generally use wheelbarrows to move stones to their respective qsp input piles to clear them out over time, but for initial shops I just let dwarves move the current obstructing stones aside by hand, then use the workshop itself for goods storage if applicable.

Sometimes I plant a temporary mason/etc. next to particular stone(s) I want to be converted into particular subterranean goods.

[Leonidas]

Maybe you're doing the QSP inefficiently. The time to QSP is essentially the distance from stone to dump site. Making more dump sites shortens the distance.

[anewaname]

How big are these stockpile rooms? When I need to clear a small room, I put a dump zone near the stairs, mass dump the rock, then remove the zone and unforbid (towards what Leonidas posted). If I needed to clear a large room (80x80), then I would create about 6 large stockpiles (a few z's from the mason's or forges), allowing there to be 18 wheelbarrows in constant use to concentrate all the rock, and set these to give to the small stockpiles that are adjacent to the workshops (towards what Fleeting Frames posted, but using an excess of wheelbarrows).

[Conor891]

A lot of times I use DFhack's autodump for stone because I'm a dirty cheater. There's just always so much stone and it never seems to all get dumped.

You can also turn on autodump for a stockpile which feels much less cheaty and things in that stockpile will automatically be set to dump so you can sort of quantum stack your stone pile and still have dwarves use wheelbarrows to hall it all tbe majority of the way.

[vassock]

How big are these stockpile rooms? When I need to clear a small room, I put a dump zone near the stairs, mass dump the rock, then remove the zone and unforbid (towards what Leonidas posted). If I needed to clear a large room (80x80), then I would create about 6 large stockpiles (a few z's from the mason's or forges), allowing there to be 18 wheelbarrows in constant use to concentrate all the rock, and set these to give to the small stockpiles that are adjacent to the workshops (towards what Fleeting Frames posted, but using an excess of wheelbarrows).

You can assign wheelbarrows to garbage dump zones? How?

[Dunamisdeos]

I just park a garbage spot right outside the room I want to clear, then unforbid the stone after it's all moved and delete the garbage spot.

A bit sploity, I suppose, but it seems the logical use for it.

[anewaname]

How big are these stockpile rooms?

When I need to clear a small room, I put a dump zone near the stairs, mass dump the rock, then remove the zone and unforbid (towards what Leonidas posted).

If I needed to clear a large room (80x80), then I would create about 6 large stockpiles (a few z's from the mason's or forges), allowing there to be 18 wheelbarrows in constant use to concentrate all the rock, and set these to give to the small stockpiles that are adjacent to the workshops (towards what Fleeting Frames posted, but using an excess of wheelbarrows).

You can assign wheelbarrows to garbage dump zones? How?

No, wheelbarrows are only assigned to stockpiles. There are two different ways to clear a room fast, using a short distance bulk dump, or using a large group of stockpiles (each with 3 wheelbarrows).

[vassock]

How big are these stockpile rooms?

When I need to clear a small room, I put a dump zone near the stairs, mass dump the rock, then remove the zone and unforbid (towards what Leonidas posted).

If I needed to clear a large room (80x80), then I would create about 6 large stockpiles (a few z's from the mason's or forges), allowing there to be 18 wheelbarrows in constant use to concentrate all the rock, and set these to give to the small stockpiles that are adjacent to the workshops (towards what Fleeting Frames posted, but using an excess of wheelbarrows).

You can assign wheelbarrows to garbage dump zones? How?

No, wheelbarrows are only assigned to stockpiles. There are two different ways to clear a room fast, using a short distance bulk dump, or using a large group of stockpiles (each with 3 wheelbarrows).

The problem I have with garbage dumping is that stone is heavy and takes lots of Dwarf hours to move, even if the dump zone is close. The wheelbarrow method is flawed because the Dwarfs end up hauling all the stone instead of just the rocks you need them to haul, and the fact that you kind of need space (which you're trying to get) in the first place.

[Leonidas]

The problem I have with garbage dumping is that stone is heavy and takes lots of Dwarf hours to move, even if the dump zone is close. The wheelbarrow method is flawed because the Dwarfs end up hauling all the stone instead of just the rocks you need them to haul, and the fact that you kind of need space (which you're trying to get) in the first place.

If you don't mind some micromanagement, you could aim the wheelbarrows at the stones you want to move.

Suppose that you want to clean up a room full of granite. From the stocks screen, forbid all the granite on the map. Then unforbid the specific pieces of granite that you want to move. Then set up your wheelbarrow stockpile to accept only granite.

There are two drawbacks:
1) If you've built any workshops or similar buildings with granite, then those buildings will stop working. This is why it's best to always use blocks for buildings.
2) You have to remember to un-forbid the granite when you're done.

[Bumber]

There are two drawbacks:
1) If you've built any workshops or similar buildings with granite, then those buildings will stop working. This is why it's best to always use blocks for buildings.
2) You have to remember to un-forbid the granite when you're done.

3) You probably don't want to un-forbid granite that was forbidden before you started.

[Fleeting Frames]

You could also use "take from links only" settings with the stockpile that has wheelbarrow, then paint the area you want cleared with a stockpile, also set to take from links only, and then take from it. No need to forbid anything this way, but it won't clear up stone that's on top of other buildings already.

[anewaname]

The problem I have with garbage dumping is that stone is heavy and takes lots of Dwarf hours to move, even if the dump zone is close. The wheelbarrow method is flawed because the Dwarfs end up hauling all the stone instead of just the rocks you need them to haul, and the fact that you kind of need space (which you're trying to get) in the first place.

You didn't mention the size of the rooms you wanted to clear the stone from, so they must be fairly large, and it sounds that you are not interested in setting up a minecart QS for stone, so consider this...

You get about 1 stone for every 4 tiles dug. So if you want to use wheelbarrows and you do not want to use a minecart quantum stockpile, then you need to use 20% of the area you dig out to both store the stone and clear the room. If the room you want to clear is 60x60, then you need about 30x30 for your stone stockpiles.

Stone stockpiles take the most recently dug stone first. So if you have dug out the stone storage room first, and put 6 stockpiles in it for stone, each with 3 wheelbarrows, you can have 18 wheelbarrows hauling stone at the same time you are digging out the 60x60 room.

If I was setting this up, with the mason's shop near the surface and the smelters near the magma, I would split the 6 stone stockpiles into a group of 4, just below the mason's shop, and a group of 2, just above the smelters, and set them to accept the appropriate stone types.

Then you will have something like this:

100z - surface/masons (the stockpiles adjacent to the workshops would only take from links and only take from the stockpiles on 95z)
 95z - the four common stone stockpiles  (these will take from anywhere and give to the stockpiles on 100z)
.
.
.
 50z - the central stockpile room
.
.
.
  0z - the two stockpiles here would accept metal ore and flux (these will take from anywhere and give to the stockpiles on -10z)
-10z - magma and smelters and forges (the stockpiles adjacent to the smelters would only accept from links and only take from the stockpiles on 0z)
The primary concept is, "get the rock sorted immediately and get it moved while it is being dug". You can have rooms cleared of stone quickly by having more wheelbarrows available for use than miners who are mining.

[mikekchar]

I don't really expect anyone to take this advice, but I like to play without QSPs for RP reasons.  What I do is to place a mason near the rock and build blocks.  You can then put the blocks in bins and move them around fairly quickly.  Of course, it means you have to find a way to use thousands and thousands of blocks.  Building above ground structures is a way to do it -- and it's more reasonable now that constructed above ground areas are cleaned.  But you could also pave all your corridors with block floors (which would be pretty cool if you colour coordinated them).  The downside is no engraving (which I do rarely anyway).

[Bumber]

You get about 1 stone for every 4 tiles dug. So if you want to use wheelbarrows and you do not want to use a minecart quantum stockpile, then you need to use 20% of the area you dig out to both store the stone and clear the room. [...]

Shouldn't that be 25%?

I don't really expect anyone to take this advice, but I like to play without QSPs for RP reasons.  What I do is to place a mason near the rock and build blocks.  You can then put the blocks in bins and move them around fairly quickly.  Of course, it means you have to find a way to use thousands and thousands of blocks.  Building above ground structures is a way to do it -- and it's more reasonable now that constructed above ground areas are cleaned.  But you could also pave all your corridors with block floors (which would be pretty cool if you colour coordinated them).  The downside is no engraving (which I do rarely anyway).

You're quadrupling your item count by making blocks. Ten thousand blocks will murder your FPS.