40d:Container

Types of containers the game knows are chests, coffers, boxes, cabinets, bags, barrels and bins. Only chests, coffers, bags and boxes are explicitly called "container" in game as they can be placed as furniture by building. All containers are used to hold items, from personal possessions to gems, beer, quarry bush leaves, and even living creatures, but their use is context-sensitive, so you cannot use your barrels for storing coins, but you can build a bag as a dwarf's personal container, analogous to a chest.

Chests, coffers, boxes and bags are subsumed under boxes and bags in the z-status stocks screen; the other containers have their own entry.

To examine a container's contents when the container is in a stockpile, select the object location with the k key. Then, use + and - until the container is highlighted, then press enter. Press enter again to select the contents, if any. The items command can be used to see items that are stored in a built container. See also, stocks.

Barrels, bins and bags

Barrels are wooden or metal containers that are useful for storing items in a food stockpile and are used to store alcohol, plants, seed bags, meat, fish, dwarven syrup, quarry bush leaf bags, flour bags and dye bags, cooked food in a stack of 10 or less, fat and tallow. They are made at a Carpenter's Workshop with wood or at a Forge with 3 bars of metal.

Bins are containers, again made from wood or metal, used for for most non-food items. They are sent to all the other stockpiles (with the exclusion of the refuse, stone and graveyard piles) and will hold much larger stacks of items, making organizing those endless piles of +giant cave spider silk socks+ much easier to manage. They are made at a Carpenter's Workshop with wood or at a Forge with 3 bars of metal.

Bags are used to store seeds, quarry bush leaves, mill products (flour, sugar, dye) and sand ("powders"). They are made from plant fiber (or silk) cloth, leather, or adamantine. Bags are used to gather and transport powders the same way buckets are used to carry water. Bags can be placed inside other containers, such as barrels. Bags can be placed as furniture and then function as coffers (see below). They are made a a Clothier's Shop with cloth or at a Leather works with leather.

Empty barrels, bins and bags can all be stored in a furniture stockpile.

Cabinets and "chests"

These two containers are both furniture items only. They must be built in rooms assigned to dwarves in order to function properly. Cabinets are used to store clothing, and chests are used to store everything else.

A stone chest is called a coffer, and a glass chest is called a box, but they are used for the same purpose. Bags can also be built as chests.

Their contents can be viewed with the t menu.

Melting

As of version ^{v0.28.181.40d} (Previous versions, unknown) metal chests suffer from a bug preventing them from being melted. The job completes successfully at the smelter, but the chest is not melted down and still flagged for melting. No bars are gained from this, but the furnace operator appears to gain experience from it.

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