40d:Digging

Digging is a group of action available from the designations menu taken by dwarven miners in order to create empty spaces, hollow out material or create constructions directly out of the land. All dig actions requires a dwarf with the miner skill and an available pick.

The most basic action is {{K|d} mine. When selected you can mark areas filled areas on the map on the current layer to be hollowed out. Any useful material such as rock or ore is deposited on the ground excavated by the tile. This dig preserves the ceiling of the layer above. The only restriction on digging is the creation of an unstable 7x7 room underground which will collapse after a short amount of time.

A more advanced version of dig is h channel. When selected floor tiles can be marked for excavation. When dug out (from above) the tile below will be dug out and the floor (or ceiling?) will be removed. Creating a channel could be described as 'strip mining'. Becareful that multiple miners working on the same channel don't undermine other dwarves causing them to fall through to the tile below. If this happens you may need to build a stair or a ramp in order for the fallen miner to escape.

For dwarves to move upwards and downwards the construction of stairways and ramps is required. The most reliable way to assist your constructions is to dig an upward stairway on the lower level and downward stairway. You can also construct these out of rocks or wood, but well placed dig commands are quicker. Digging downwards from the surface, first dig a j downward stairway. If you wait for this to be dug you will then see a visible block on the layer below where the stairway connects. In this tile dig an upward stairway. Your dwarves will now be able to access both levels using these stairs. It is advisable to build one of these before channeling in order for your dwarves to escape.

When digging upwards it may be convinient to build an i up/down stairway. This automatically creates a downward stairway on the floor above. This style creates an X symbol inplace of a < on the default tileset, but leaves a > symbol on the floor above.

Stairs and Ramps can be removed using the z remove up stairs/ramps command. Select this and mark the stairs/ramps to be dug out.

Ramps should be avoided until you need to provide access to caravans as dwarves on the upper level cannot perform actions such as dig, or build when standing on the ramp (imagine they are 'half way' up the ramp).

Map Structure

If you are still confused about tunnels, floors and ceilings created by the mine command then look at the following diagram:

  LAYER 3       -> SIDE VIEW
  ██████..-     5 ██████
  ██████..-     4 ██████
->██████..-     3 ██████__
  ██████..-     2 ████  
  ██████..-     1 █████████
  
  LAYER 2
  ████████.
  ████████.
->████.....
  ████████. 
  ████████.
  
Key:
█ Solid rock
. Floor, visible from this layer
- Empty space, with a floor below
_ Ceiling (undermined section)