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[ehertlein]

Are there any tools that people use to draw out their fortress before digging? I'm in my third year of my fortress and having all sorts of idea about how I would improve my next fortress.

[Peewee]

Pencil + grid paper.
I've used notebook paper too, though it's more confusing xD

[sjmarshy]

I've heard of people setting their spreadsheet programs to squares and filling in squares in different colours to plan out.

[Davion]

If you're using Windows you can go into Paint, zoom into 6x or 8x and press Ctrl+G to get the grid pattern, switch to the smallest brush size and get to work on planning.

[Fossaman]

If you're using Windows you can go into Paint, zoom into 6x or 8x and press Ctrl+G to get the grid pattern, switch to the smallest brush size and get to work on planning.

This is what I do when I'm really stymied. Otherwise I just try designating all the stuff to be mined out with the game paused, and keeping it paused until I've got it how I want it.

[Quiller]

I went searching around a while ago and came up with this site

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/plain/

Makes PDFs of graph paper to your specifications that you can print out yourself.

[Exponent]

I use Paint.NET (any paint program supporting layers will work), and work with layers to represent both different z-levels as well as different levels of abstraction.  One layer might simply be abstract designs using circle, rectangle, and line tools, with anti-aliasing to improve accuracy.  I set that layer to partial transparency, and then work on a different layer to actually plan out specific cells that will be mined out, built on, and so forth.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

Otherwise I just try designating all the stuff to be mined out with the game paused, and keeping it paused until I've got it how I want it.

This is what I do.  It's not uncommon for me to have 3000 or more squares designated for digging, but none of them accessible to my miners until I'm sure my wells won't run through my barracks or something.  This way I don't need to leave the game paused.

[Hishan]

Lego. never fails, and you can plan in 3D

[vagel7]

hishan you gotta have a hell of a lot of lego to do that.

[Proteus]

Otherwise I just try designating all the stuff to be mined out with the game paused, and keeping it paused until I've got it how I want it.

Thatīs roughly what I do.

There are 2 things that are roughly preplanned and donīt change very much with each fortress,
that is
1. the order of z-levels (separated into food production, crafts production and habitaion blocks)
2. The layouts of  single rooms (standards layouts that can be combined, normally for large rooms 11*11 (like the rooms for the count(ess) or normal storage rooms), for food and drink storage rooms and the dinign hall 2*2*(11*11)+(2*1 (a dividing line of rock, vertically and horizontally)), for normal habitation rooms 5*5 or 3*3, the central stairway 5*5 as well)

The exact layout however depends on the situation at the location. I normally preplan the fortress by designating tiles for dig, but, especially in the beginning where dwarfpower ist scare, I separate the parts that really will be dug out now from the parts that donīt need to be dug out at the moment by making them inaccessible (just deleting the dig designation for some tiles does the trick), for example in the beginning I would just dig out a 5*5 part of the storage rooms, with the rest being preplanned as dig designations, by just erasing the dig designations at the 6th tiles of the room.

[Vicomt]

Personally, I've been using Open Office Draw. it gives reasonable flexibility, but you have to build your own details from the ground up.

I did see someone using Open Office Calc (the spreadsheet) which looked quite nice, someone did post a link to a design on one of the forum subsections here, but I've not been able to find the document since I first saw it.

[Ashery]

Otherwise I just try designating all the stuff to be mined out with the game paused, and keeping it paused until I've got it how I want it.

Same.

I think I've spent an hour in my current fortress and I haven't even unpaused it

Currently wondering how it'll work out since the core of the fort has to fit on a 1x1 region tile. Flanked to the E by a chasm and to the W by an underground river, neither of which do I know the exact location of. The chasm should be easy to find (Digging along the bottom level for what will be the sewer system for the fort) and block off with battlements, but the river will be a larger issue as I'm unsure of the level it'll be on...and if it happens to be on the level of my entry way that throws the entire fortress plan out, heh...

[ShadeJS]

I have templates that live in my skull. For above ground and below. Every fort I refine them a little more. I build one 'segment' at a time, and lay them out on pause. Once the basic build is done'ish', I start to think about ego builds... Mmm... 10 z-level water spurting glass tower powered by windmills....

[Hishan]

hishan you gotta have a hell of a lot of lego to do that.

maybe I have a lot of lego