40d:Grate

v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31 · v0.28.181.40d · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Grates are a furniture building can be placed either as walkable platforms (as a floor grate) or as walls (as a wall grate). They can be constructed from Template:L or Template:L (with the Template:L Template:L at a Template:L), wood (with the Template:L labor in a Template:L), or Template:Ls (with the a Template:L labor at a Template:L). They are represented in game by the symbol " # ".

Grates, like Bars, are incredibly useful as a semipermeable membrane. Uses include:

• Creatures (including caravan wagons) may walk over floor grates.
• Creatures may not walk (or swim) through wall grates, making them a useful separator in Underground Rivers.
• They can be operated with a Template:L to retract them in either position.
• Template:L may fish through floor grates.
• Dwarves may drink through grates (assuming there is 4/7 or more water directly under it).

Floor grates must be attached Template:Lly (i.e. not diagonally) to firm ground or some solid construction (a wall, floor, etc), not (just) other grates. Template:Ls, of any type, will not be supported by grates - although the game allows you to designate something supported only by a grate, any construction will collapse as soon as it is completed. Wall grates need only be placed on top of a natural or constructed floor - no supporting walls are needed.

Since a grate must be connected to something other than other grates, they currently cannot be used to cover a large area by themselves. Therefore, large areas can only be covered with some sort of patchwork connected to solid ground, such as this tessellated pattern, which covers 80% of any extended area with grates, and the top of a "wall" only 1 every 5 tiles:

 # #+## #+##
#+####+####+##         + = natural ground or top of Template:L 1 Template:L below*
 ##+####+####+#        # = grate
   ##+####+###
     ##+# ##+#

* Note that none of these floors are constructed floors, unless those are attached to something other than a grate, like an outer wall or otherwise anchored floor tile.

Compared to Bars

Floor grates and wall grates are much like floor bars and vertical bars. Are they different? Toady writes:

I don't think there's a meaningful distinction at this time [10/31/2007] (perhaps the grate does have that extra step to make the item). Later, I imagine larger items will fall through bars, and only small items will go through grates. Grates might also stop most vermin. Perhaps even small units could go through bars.

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