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As you can see it is getting a bit out of hand and taking up a lot of space using raw Stockpiles.

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    Someone should add a minecart un-dump to this as an answer
    – Daenyth
    Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 23:50

3 Answers 3

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Designate a garbage dump zone using the i command and using d to designate the zone as a garbage dump. Your haulers will now dump any stone designated as garbage there. If you want to stone back in rotation, just unforbid the stone. For ease of unforbidding it is best to just use one square as a garbage dump zone.

Any item that is marked as garbage/to be dumped is hauled by a hauler to a garbage zone, and then marked as forbidden.

You can designate a mass area as stuff to be dumped, use d, go to item properties b and select d any squares you now designate containing items, will mark those items to be dumped. (Use the same commands but D to mass undump items, or c to claim/unforbid).

This trick is called a quantum stockpile. Some consider it to be an exploit.

From the wiki there are also these two tricks:

A similar effect may be achieved by building a wall two tiles in front of a catapult and digging a channel between the wall and catapult. By firing the catapult at the wall, the stone falls into the trench. The stone will pile up in the channel, putting it out of sight and out of mind. Not only does this train siege operators, but it clears the stone that your legendary miners leave.

Another way to quantum stockpile is to not have appropriate stockpiles to move items back you moved to the trading depot. The depot can hold an infinite number of items, and those items will not be removed if there is nowhere else to place them. This is also useful for anything you want to trade anyway.

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    I think you missed a step: A garbage zone designated around a pit will make the person dumping the item throw it down the pit. So a 3X3 garbage zone with a hole in the middle will throw it all down the pit.
    – Frank
    Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 13:26
  • The pit is not needed. It is possible, but just designating a garbage zone is enough. (I actually had problems with multi level garbage pits. Dwarfs dumping stuff in while another was picking stuff up). I'll edit my answer.
    – Ids
    Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 13:29
  • I'm pretty sure the pit is needed to make the dwarves stack things onto the same tile; without it, the zone gets filled up, and they'll stop hauling stuff to it. With the pit, dwarf hauls object, drops it down pit. Zone does not fill up.
    – Frank
    Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 13:37
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    The guide on the wiki strongly recommends only using 1 square for the garbage dump, since it makes unforbidding things much easier.
    – Canageek
    Commented Jul 25, 2012 at 18:06
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    Dwarves will happily use a single tile garbage zone without needing a pit. It's filling ponds that they're not interested in doing at foot level.
    – Samthere
    Commented Sep 27, 2012 at 12:31
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Another way, if you're mostly planning to use this stone for constructions, is to order it carved into blocks at a mason's workshop. Each boulder creates four blocks, each of which can be used in place of a raw stone when building things (so you get 4x as many things out of it as well). This is also a good way to train up beginning masons, since their skill affects only the speed of the job (and it's a pretty fast job anyway). I usually build a special mason's shop for this near the quarry, with its work queue filled by "make blocks" orders on repeat so that my manager doesn't give it orders for anything important, and I set it to "beginners only" so that my master masons don't waste their time.

Blocks can be stacked to 10 in bins in a stockpile, cutting down the space you need by 60% (assuming you have plenty of bins). In addition, buildings and constructions made from blocks are somewhat more valuable than those made from raw stone, and are built faster.

The disadvantage is that blocks cannot be used for anything other than constructions and buildings: furniture and crafts require raw stones. So be careful not to block up all your stones if your economy relies on stonecrafting. Smelting pig iron and steel also requires raw flux stones, but in this case they should be safe from being grabbed up by an overzealous mason because economic stones are normally ineligible (I recommend manually setting kaolinite to economic as well if you want a porcelain industry).

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  • Thanks that is also a great way of getting rid of the stone that I didn't think about. A bit different method than the stockpile method, but at least it reduces storage space. (At the cost of hauler jobs, but that is why I dedicate haulers). Just making mugs out of them should also work.
    – Ids
    Commented Jul 26, 2012 at 15:34
  • @Ids Sure, if you're just trying to get rid of the stones. The advantage of blocking is that it makes the stones even more useful for 80% of the stuff you need stone for (because you get 4 instead of 1). Mugs, as we all know, are useless crap, only good for selling to the caravan and making Goblin Christmas come more often.
    – Paul Z
    Commented Jul 28, 2012 at 0:14
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You can quantum stockpile without the need to manually designate dumping and reclaiming, and you can do it in such a way that allows you to have multiple quantum stockpiles with specific contents. Having multiple garbage dumps will result in dwarves using the closest for everything. Cart-powered quantum stockpiling lets you retain all the benefits of the custom stockpile settings.

To do this, you need a minecart track with a maximum-friction track stop built on it. A feeder stockpile is built nearby which accepts the materials you wish to stockpile, and a single-tiled stockpile which accepts the same things is built next to the track.

One benefit for this method is that dwarves can use wheelbarrows to haul stone or other heavy objects to the feeder stockpile. They only have to carry the objects between the feeder and the track stop.

By setting up a hauling route with this stop, dwarves can be told to fill the cart from the feeder stockpile and then give the cart a push, which dumps the contents onto the quantum stockpile. You can have a stop for each different kind of quantum stockpile you like! It works great for stones, furniture, etc - pretty much anything that isn't stored in a container.

For more detailed instructions, see dbay's post on bay12.

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    No minecart track is needed. Just have the Track Stop dump everything to the tile of quantum stockpile that is right next to it. This way, items that are put into the minecart will immediately get quantum dumped. The minecart doesn't even need to be pushed. One thing your answer does not mention, is that you'll have to define a hauling route, with a hauling stop that superimposes onto the track stop. Assign a vehicle to it. Set the appropriate items that the minecart will accept. Select the feeder stockpile from which this hauling stop will take items.
    – Fnord23
    Commented Feb 3, 2016 at 9:11

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