orders

Usage

orders list

Shows the list of previously exported orders, including the orders library.

orders export <name>

Saves all the current manager orders in a file.

orders import <name>

Imports the specified manager orders. Note this adds to your current set of manager orders. It will not clear the orders that already exist.

orders clear

Deletes all manager orders in the current embark.

orders recheck [this]

Sets the status to Checking (from Active) for all work orders that have conditions that can be re-checked. If the “this” option is passed, only sets the status for the workorder whose condition details page is open. This makes the manager reevaluate its conditions. This is especially useful for an order that had its conditions met when it was started, but the requisite items have since disappeared and the workorder is now generating job cancellation spam.

orders sort

Sorts current manager orders by repeat frequency so repeating orders don’t prevent one-time orders from ever being completed. The sorting order is: one-time orders first, then yearly, seasonally, monthly, and finally, daily.

You can keep your orders automatically sorted by adding the following command to your dfhack-config/init/onMapLoad.init file:

repeat -name orders-sort -time 1 -timeUnits days -command [ orders sort ]

Exported orders are saved in the dfhack-config/orders directory, where you can view, edit, and delete them, if desired.

Examples

orders export myorders

Export the current manager orders to a file named dfhack-config/orders/myorders.json.

orders import library/basic

Import manager orders from the library that keep your fort stocked with basic essentials.

Overlay

Fort-wide work orders screen

Orders plugin functionality is directly available via an overlay widget when the fort-wide work orders screen is open. There are hotkeys assigned to export, import, sort, clear, and recheck conditions. You can also click on the hotkey hints as if they were buttons. Clearing will ask for confirmation before acting.

When you open the conditions screen for a manager order, there is also a small overlay that allows you to recheck conditions for just that order. This is useful for when the conditions were true when the order started, but they have become false and now you’re just getting repeated cancellation spam as the order cannot be fulfilled.

Workshop Workers tab

For workshops that do not have a workshop master assigned, there is a slider you can use to restrict the units that perform jobs at that workshop by their skill level.

Due to space constraints, some skill levels are combined with the adjacent higher rank on the slider:

  • “Competent” includes “Adequate” workers

  • “Proficient” includes “Skilled” workers

  • “Expert” includes “Adept” workers

  • “Accomplished” includes “Professional” workers

  • “Master” includes “Great” workers

  • “Grand Master” includes “High Master” workers

Finally, a list is shown for workshops that service manager orders of multiple labor types. You can toggle the listed labors so the workshop only accepts general work orders that match the enabled labors (the list of allowed labors is different for every workshop).

For example, by default, all weapon, armor, and blacksmithing general manager orders get sent to all forges that can take general work orders. With labor restrictions, you can designate specific forges to handle just weapons, just armor, or just metalsmithing. Then, you can assign appropriate legendary masters to each forge, and they will only receive orders for appropriate products.

Similarly, you can set up Craftsdwarf’s workshops to specialize in stone, wood, or bone.

Regardless of the labor restriction settings, you can manually assign any task to the workshop and it will still be completed. The labor restrictions only apply to general manager work orders scheduled from the fort-wide work orders screen.

Veteran players may remember these overlays as vanilla features in pre-v50 Dwarf Fortress. This is actually still the case. The DFHack overlay simply provides a UI for the vanilla feature hiding beneath the surface.

If you want to change where the overlay panels appear, you can move them with gui/overlay.

The orders library

DFHack comes with a library of useful manager orders that are ready for import:

library/basic

This collection of orders handles basic fort necessities:

  • prepared meals and food products (and by-products like oil)

  • booze/mead

  • thread/cloth/dye

  • pots/bins/jugs/buckets/mugs

  • bags of leather, cloth, silk, and yarn

  • crafts, totems, and shleggings from otherwise unusable by-products

  • mechanisms/cages

  • splints/crutches

  • lye/soap

  • ash/potash

  • beds/wheelbarrows/minecarts

  • scrolls

You should import it as soon as you have enough dwarves to perform the tasks. Right after the first migration wave is usually a good time.

Note that the jugs are specifically made out of wood. This is so, as long as you don’t may any other “Tools” out of wood, you can have a stockpile just for jugs by restricting a finished goods stockpile to only take wooden tools.

Armok’s additional note: “shleggings? Yes, shleggings.”

library/furnace

This collection creates basic items that require heat. It is separated out from library/basic to give players the opportunity to set up magma furnaces first in order to save resources. It handles:

  • charcoal (including smelting of bituminous coal and lignite)

  • pearlash

  • sand

  • green/clear/crystal glass

  • adamantine processing

  • item melting

Orders are missing for plaster powder until DF Bug 11803 is fixed.

library/military

This collection adds high-volume smelting jobs for military-grade metal ores and produces weapons and armor:

  • leather backpacks/waterskins/quivers/armor

  • silk cloaks

  • bone/wooden bolts

  • smelting for platinum, silver, steel, bronze, bismuth bronze, and copper (and their dependencies)

  • bronze/bismuth bronze/copper bolts

  • steel/silver/iron/bismuth bronze/bronze/copper weapons and armor, with checks to ensure only the best available materials are being used

  • wooden shields (if metal isn’t available)

If you set a stockpile to take weapons and armor of less than masterwork quality and turn on automelt (like what Dreamfort provides on its industry level), these orders will automatically upgrade your military equipment to masterwork. Make sure you have a lot of fuel (or magma forges and furnaces) before you turn automelt on, though!

This file should only be imported, of course, if you need to equip a military.

library/smelting

This collection adds smelting jobs for all ores. It includes handling the ores already managed by library/military, but has lower limits. This ensures all ores will be covered if a player imports library/smelting but not library/military, but the higher-volume library/military orders will take priority if both are imported.

library/rockstock

This collection of orders keeps a small stock of all types of rock furniture. This allows you to do ad-hoc furnishings of guildhalls, libraries, temples, or other rooms with buildingplan and your masons will make sure there is always stock on hand to fulfill the plans.

library/glassstock

Similar to library/rockstock above, this collection keeps a small stock of all types of glass furniture. If you have a functioning glass industry, this is more sustainable than library/rockstock since you can never run out of sand. If you have plenty of rock and just want the variety, you can import both library/rockstock and library/glassstock to get a mixture of rock and glass furnishings in your fort.

There are a few items that library/glassstock produces that library/rockstock does not, since there are some items that can not be made out of rock, for example:

  • tubes and corkscrews for building magma-safe screw pumps

  • windows

  • terrariums (as an alternative to wooden cages)