thanks I figured out what was wrong but it brings me to ask antoher 2 questions :S ( i'll read the wiki about it, he got away as I have no military..)
1.) Whats the difference between using d, j to make and up/downstaircase, or using b, C, x to place a staircase?
2.) I currently have an elven caravan in my depot, but it won't let me trade? I pressed request trader, nothing. its my miner who is the broker? He's not currently mining, all the goods have been moved to the caravan.
Thanks in advance this game is pretty awesome I look forward to not sucking at it
1. d j digs a hole with a stairway. You can only do it on tiles you haven't mined out, and it uses the mining skill. b C x builds a stairway out of some material you have. It'll use one stone, log, block, or metal bar. You can only do it on places you have mined out (or where there was not rock to start with) and it uses masonry.
2. Your miner/broker is busy doing something. It could be something vitally important, something useless (ie: partying, drinking), or something annoyingly trivial (ie: putting a seed in a bag).
To get him to do the job you may have to disable all his labors, and tell your dwarves to stop moving anything new to the depot. Also make sure you've actually asked him to trade. Several times I've been very pissed at an idling non-trading Broker who wasn't supposed to trade.
Alternately you could suspend every job in the fortress, allow non-brokers to trade, and declare the first guy who does the job broker. This works best if your miner/broker doesn't have the appraise skill.
Nick