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40d:Building

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This article is about an older version of DF.

A building is a structure that can be placed from the build menu and then interacted with by the Set Building Tasks/Prefs command ( q ), and the View Items in Buildings command ( t ). Included in this are workshops, doors, trade depots, furniture, bridges, traps -- most of the interesting stuff your dwarves will build!

Most buildings are made from raw materials or blocks, although some workshops require some additional finished items as well.

Some buildings are placed furniture; a cage or throne sitting in a stockpile is just furniture and can be moved by haulers, washed away by flooding, etc., but when built they become a building that can be interacted with. (Or, what seems more accurate to say, a new building is created and the original furniture becomes part of that building's permanent inventory.) Some buildings can be used to define rooms.

Buildings should be considered distinct from constructions. While both are built via the b build menu, constructions are inert to q and t, are removed by designation, and are generally more similar to terrain features. Furthermore, dwarves can place buildings on constructed floors, but buildings cannot overlap other buildings, nor can constructions overlap other constructions. Also constructions provide support while buildings do not.

Overlap of Buildings and Constructions

Most tiles have one of these simple states: wall, empty space, or floor.

Nothing can be built or constructed where a wall tile exists. Constructions and some furniture (wells, grates, bridges) can be built over empty space. Otherwise, almost all building occurs on floor tiles, whether pre-existing, dug out or constructed. Note that a tile that would otherwise be empty space behaves as a floored space if one z-level above a constructed wall.

When it comes to stairs and ramps, the behavior is not very intuitive. The table below details which building and constructions will prevent the construction of certain other buildings and constructions, since the system isn't always consistent. This table isn't necessarily complete, there's probably more buildings which are inconsistent.


Workshop Other buildings Natural Constructed Open Space
Floor Up Stair Down or Up/Down Stair Up Slope Down Slope Floor Up Stair Down Stair Up Ramp Down Ramp
Workshop No No Yes No No No No Yes No No No No No
Other Buildings No No Yes No No No No Yes No No No No Some
Constructed Floor No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes
Constructed Wall No Yes Yes Yes¹ Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes
Constructed Up Stair No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes
Constructed Down Stair No No Yes No Yes¹ No No No No No No No Yes²
Up/Down Stair No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes²
Ramp No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes

¹Destroys natural stairs on the tile.

²Down and up/down stairs must be constructed 1 z-level above an existing up (or up/down) stair if you wish to build them in open space.

List of buildings


Rooms
Furniture
Animal trapAnvilArmor standBedBinBucketCabinetCageCoffinContainerRestraintSeatStatueTableWeapon rack

Access
DoorFloodgateBarsGrateFloor hatchBridgeRoadWindow
Constructions
Machine & Trap parts
Other Buildings
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