I just thought I'd like to share my views on the scale of dwarf fortress, and I in no way mean to interfere with anyone's current beliefs.
I am also aware that Toady has estimated the scale of a grid square to be 5 feet across.
I will be using spoiler tags to hide exessive rambling and explanations for the purposes of shortening this text wall.
in line spoiler buttons would have been handier if anyone can tell me how to do that(if possible).
From observation, intuition, and... strange coincidences; I have decided that a single grid square in dwarf fortress is a cubic 8 foot block.
(despite my lack of experience with the imperial measurement system)
This leaves one unit of water at one foot of depth; and one foot of thickness for floors. This, coincidentaly lines up with water depth rules; where a dwarf can stand
and breathe in depth 4 water, but depth 5 is over his head;
(I imagine dwarves to be between 4'6" and 5 feet tall)
and an elf is only drowning in depth 7.
(an elf, contrary to what many belive, i would see as closer to 6 feet tall and of narrow build rather than the shorter D&D style elves)
(I also beleive the foot of water required to get from the ceiling of floor 1 to the floor of the second storey is abstracted out.)
I have also noticed that at least some of the creatures I have looked at in the raws have a size of: height in feet +1
-dwarves have a size of 6 (5 feet tall)
-humans and elves have a size of 7(6 feet tall)
-elephants have a size of ten(average of 9 feet)
female elephants are about 8 feet tall; males are closer to ten;
-cats have a size of 3(most domestic cats seem to average close to 2 feet long ignoring the tail)
Square grid spaces also give 45° ramps which i beleive to be the steepest reasonable angle for a ramp. It also gives a 3.31(ish)foot gap between diagonal pillars,
(assuming a pillar is round[spoiler][or a shape with sides of a multiple of four]
and goes all the way accross the square horizontally.)[/spoiler] which i believe is easily passable.
I actually started thinking about all this when i decided I'd try my hand at building a high poly 3d model of one of my fortresses(which i have not yet finished).
Any thoughts are welcome.
Thankyou for your time.