- v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
- Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
v0.31:Stonegears/Digging
Designations
You can do many useful things in your fort with designations. A designation means (for the most part) "a wide area order to your dwarfs to alter your site". You can access the designation menu using d from the main menu:
SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER
Lets use downward Template:Lways as an example (first making sure that the game is paused). Use j to select Downward Stairway, then move the X cursor to the south of the wagon. Press Enter, then move the cursor one tile to the east. Where you pressed Enter will be a blinking +, which is the anchor for the designation. Now move the cursor four more to the east, then five south, then hit Enter. There will now be a six-by-six area of downward stair designations (NOTE: don't unpause yet):
SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER
The anchor and the cursor act as opposite corners of a rectangle which gets filled in with the selected designation type (just hit Enter twice to designate a single tile). Note that the tiles containing trees have no designations, since you can't dig stairs if there's a tree in the way, and a designation command will only select tiles where the current order is appropriate. The only feedback you'll get on how a designation command went are the highlighted graphics in the closeup view and the brown shading in the map view; if no tiles were selected then you'll get no warning or error message.
Since designations are merely orders to your dwarfs, they're easy to undo if none of your dwarfs have carried them out yet. If you've made a mistake or changed your mind you can undo a designation with x to select Remove Designation. Press Enter when the cursor is at one corner of the square of stairs, move the cursor to the other corner and press Enter again; all the designations will be gone (make sure they're all gone, since that was just an example). The remove designation mode can be used for more than just fixing mistakes. For instance, you could designate a large rectangle and then un-designate a small hole in the center, which would be easier than putting multiple separate designations up around a hole.