40d:Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material comprised of small bits of rock and minerals. There are many different colors of sand, including yellow, red, and black, but there is no difference between them (e.g. in glass making) aside from their appearance on the ground.^{v0.28.181.40d} It typically appears in deserts and along ocean beaches, but is occasionally found in other biomes as well. Loamy sand cannot be used for glassmaking.

Due to a bug, stone floors where a tower-cap or shrub grows will turn into a random soil type, which will sometimes be sand.^[Verify]

Sand in Fortress Mode

Sand is used in the production of glass items at a glass furnace. Dwarves use bags to collect sand from sand tiles if there is an activity zone that has sand collection enabled on them (there is no other way to "manufacture" sand). To get bags of sand for your fortress, create a leather bag at a leather works or a cloth bag at a clothier's shop. While that bag is being made, press i at the main menu to bring up the activity zone designation screen. Find some sand on your map and draw the zone over it. Once this zone is constructed make sure to turn it into a sand collection zone by pressing s. Next, construct a Glass Furnace. You cannot do the collect sand task without a Glass Furnace to activate the task at. Once the building is constructed and your bag is finished, queue up a sand collection task and you should be set. Sand bags are stored in furniture stockpiles; when creating custom stockpiles, the option to include or exclude sand-filled bags can be found in the lower right corner of the Furniture submenu. Note that you'll still need to set the stockpile to accept the quality of the bags themselves. Collected sand may be found under powder on the stocks menu.

Farming

As sand counts as a soil, farm plots can be built on it without need of irrigation.