40d:Ramp

I'm trying to figure out ramps and stairs.

Construction and Materials -

There are two ways for your dwarves to construct ramps and stairways. One way is to carve them into the earth itself, using the ground below or walls of stone, dirt, and ice as a building material. This is done by issuing a designation over the area you wish to carve out. Once the designation is issued, a miner will come and dig out the desired structure. By carving out ramps and staircases this way, you can avoid wasting valuable and potentially scarce materials in their construction. (This is especially important if you've settled upon an aquifer, where materials like stone may be particularly scarce, at least for a time.) This also saves your dwarves time, as the alternative method requires the hauling of materials to the site of construction as well as the valuable time of one of your skilled tradesmen, depending on the material used. (For example, a mason will build stairs and ramps out of stone, while a carpenter will build them from wood, and so on.)

The other method by which ramps and stairways can be built is to construct them manually from whatever building materials you have handy. Ramps and staircases can be constructed from stone, wood, metal, and other building materials. Using this method, ramps and stairways can be placed anywhere your dwarves need them. This method is preferable when naturally occurring materials have already been mined away from the desired construction site, or when structures carved into the ground prove otherwise inadequate.

Collapse

Be sure to avoid mining out all of the floor tiles surrounding a ramp or staircase above and below it. If you do this, not only will the structures themselves be useless, they'll collapse, both of which can leave your dwarves trapped. While it goes without saying that a ramp or staircase surrounded by empty space is unusable, in the event a construction project arises that will require you to build these structures, always be sure to build the walls and floors surrounding them first.