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[RedWick]

I have plenty of blocks to build all sorts of constructions.  But they're all in different colors (orthoclase yellow, microline blue, granite grey, and rocksalt white, with a smattering of petrified wood red).  Which means that I can either wait for enough rocks of the right type to be produced, or I can build my fortress so it looks horrifically colorful and random.   

I suppose I could always just go ahead and build stuff now, then replace it when I get the right colors. 

[SkyRender]

There is an alternative, but it's not pleasant: put a stone stockpile right next to your workshops and disallow any stone type you don't want cluttering it up.

Or you can manually forbid stones you don't want your Dorfs to build stuff out of (this is easier if you do it from the z Stocks menu, but requires highest precision from your bookkeeper most of the time).

[SmokedRWA]

What I'm doing in my current fort is making quantum stockpiles of each rock type and then unforbidding/forbidding them when I want certain blocks/furniture made.

[Untelligent]

Or you can manually forbid stones you don't want your Dorfs to build stuff out of (this is easier if you do it from the z Stocks menu, but requires highest precision from your bookkeeper most of the time).

This pretty much ceases to be an option once your fort starts getting pretty big. Many people with prolonged forts even take particular care not to pass over the Stones section on the way to a lower stock category, as to avoid making the game try to account for tens or even hundreds of thousands of individual stones.

There's a mod that adds all stones to the Economic Stones menu, so you can turn off production via that stone at will, but it requires a new world to be generated to take effect.

[RedWick]

Had I been thinking, yeah, I probably would've dropped in the economic stones mod, since I like having that degree of control.  It's been a while since I loaded DF up and really played it though.

I've never really been a fan of the quantum stockpile.  I mean, it's really handy, but somehow...I don't know, I guess I'm a purest or something. 

I might use the stock screen for the time being.  I'm only sitting at about 2k stone, which doesn't really cause too much of a delay when I look at it.  I want to convert it all to blocks though, since I enjoy building outdoor constructions.  It didn't help that I had forgotten to turn off the pop cap of 10 I had set when I first started this fort.  Hard to get anything done with only 11 dwarves.  Heheh...

This is the fortress I'm talking about, btw.  And your suggestions are appreciated!

[Blacken]

I generally just set up stockpiles with a mason's workshop in the middle. Throw a dorf in, lock the door, and the little bearded bastard can come out when I have ALL THE BLOCKS I EVER WANT!

Or, you know. When he starts to starve.

[Amalgam]

I tend to use the closest stone that's available - if I'm digging out a workshop in a microcline cluster, the workshop will be built from microcline. The result looks better, to me at least, and there's less hauling in the long run. If you're bookkeeper is set to the highest precision you can forbid and hide all stones you don't want to use from the stocks menu which should take care of most of the stone you don't want to use. If you're building something that's far away from the stone to begin with I recommend making a custom stockpile that only accepts the stone you need, this will speed up construction by distributing the work load among your dwarves and ensure you have a ready supply of the particular stone you need, wherever you need it. If you're having a shortage of whatever stone you need (haha, stone shortage... I crack myself up sometimes) all I can advise is that you dig more! expansion is always a good thing. Dig more bedrooms, dig more workshops, anything that produces stone and expands the fort. If you're doing a mostly above ground fort (doesn't look like it...) a quarry is always an aesthetically pleasing way to extract stone - basically an inverse pyramid in the ground with ramps leading down to lower levels. Make it as big as you want!

[zchris13]

Watch out you don't forbid your workshops if they are built out of a rock you forbid.

[Blacken]

Watch out you don't forbid your workshops if they are built out of a rock you forbid.

This is highly entertaining when you forbid your still.

[RedWick]

I have a tendency to just stick the mason's workshop in the middle of a fresh set of stones.  This probably isn't the best tactic if I'm trying keep my block's color under control, huh?    

Mostly I'm just grousing about my lack of foresight.  I could probably be smarter about things, but I'm kinda in a zen groove with this fort right now.

[SkyRender]

I once did that, actually.  Every single workshop in my starting area was made out of Gypsum, and I didn't want them to make any more Gypsum blocks (I had more than enough), so I banned all Gypsum.  Suddenly my fort ground to a halt, and I had a hell of a time figuring out why...

[Graebeard]

I always set up all my workshops thusly: I place a 5x5 stockpile, and cut out a 3x3 square from the middle for the workshop.  I change the settings so that the only thing that they'll accept is the input material for whatever they produce.  Since the worker usually selects the closest usable material that means I get the kind of products I want.

Want olivine doors?  Mason shop surrounded by a ring of olivine-only stone stockpile.  Want practice bolts produced quickly? Craftsdwarf shop surrounded by bone stockpile.  Lava-proof mechanisms?  Ditto with mechanic shop/bauxite.  You could get all the schist blocks you could ever want for a brown, above-ground fortress with one mason's shop surrounded by a 1-tile wide stockpile set to accept only schist.

[Dorf3000]

The thing you have to remember is that if you start setting stockpiles all over, you'll need lots of dwarves that do nothing but drag stones all day, to keep up with your Grand Master Masons.

I tend to play with a low pop cap so I don't like 'wasting' dwarves on mere hauling duty, instead I just set up workshops made from blocks (to avoid the forbidden workshop problem.  The first mason shop is made from wood, obviously..) and deconstruct them when they get cluttered.  I don't even set up block stockpiles unless I'm building something big like a road where I want a specific type of block.  If I hit a lot of ore on the surface, I'll set up a pile for that just to bring it inside.

To answer the OP's problem, just dig more in areas with the right colors and prefer a small number of well-trained miners rather than having everybody dig, you'll get more stone that way.  It's a big face-palm moment when you discover some aluminum and then watch as three separate 'miners' dig it out and recover absolutely nothing.

[Shades]

One of the reasons I like glass forts

[darkflagrance]

I have plenty of blocks to build all sorts of constructions.  But they're all in different colors (orthoclase yellow, microline blue, granite grey, and rocksalt white, with a smattering of petrified wood red).  Which means that I can either wait for enough rocks of the right type to be produced, or I can build my fortress so it looks horrifically colorful and random.   

I suppose I could always just go ahead and build stuff now, then replace it when I get the right colors. 

Mod all stones to be the same color. Just copy the color information for your favorite stone to all the rest. Maybe have some white, black, and red for the occasionally aesthetic touch.