Size

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v53.03 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

You may be looking for size of clothing, armor, the dimensions of a tile, or the list of creatures by size.

Size is a measure of how big a creature or item is, as volume in cubic centimeters[1], and called [BODY_SIZE] or [SIZE] in raw files.

Size has many important effects on the game, many through its direct effect on item weight, but as material properties go, its implementation is sometimes underwhelming - witness the incredible compression of matter, space, and time that is the QSP. When even multiple full grown dragons occupy a single square, size becomes a little difficult to contextualize. It doesn't help that a bronze colossus fits in a basic wooden cage (although, a fire man fits in it too).

Size directly affects such things as which weapons your dwarves can equip, butchering returns, storage limits, and combat effectiveness for both creatures and weapons.

Size is used to calculate an item's weight, along with the density of the underlying material(s):

Weight (in Γ) = Density (in kg/m³) * Size (in cm³) / 1,000,000 (cm³ in a m³)

Through weight, the size of an item has further ramifications in the game, such as hauling speed, pressure plate activation, impact momentum, weight restrictions, and so forth.

The weight of creatures is calculated from the densities and sizes of the layers of their body parts, which currently results in corpse weights that are about 1/3 heavier than expected.

Internally, all custom size numbers are rounded down to the nearest multiple of 10 - thus, if you define an item with [SIZE:15], it will actually behave as if you had specified [SIZE:10].[2]

Buildings

The [DIM] building token defines the size of a workshop or building in tiles. This differs from creatures and items in that a building doesn't have a weight, and it's not in cm³, of course.

Creatures

When it comes to creatures, size is a rough stand-in for weight since standard flesh weighs about one gram per cubic centimeter. However, in the typical complexity of Dwarf Fortress, there are a number of other materials animals can include (ivory, hair, horn, shell, etc.) which have their own densities, shifting a creature's actual weight relative to its size, sometimes significantly (elephant tusks weigh a lot). Creature size is determined by [BODY_SIZE] tokens, often with multiple tokens to set their base size at certain ages.

Bodysize determines several things:

• Average butchering yields.
• How much damage they can absorb (along with morphology).
• How much damage they can inflict in melee (along with morphology and attack definition tokens).
• For creatures that can wear equipment ([EQUIPS]).

• What size of equipment a creature can wear; clothing and armor are sized for a specific species and only creatures with a species base size near that size can wear them, an individual creature's actual size does not matter for this.
• Weapons have a minimum size that a creature must be to wield them ([MINIMUM_SIZE] and [TWO_HANDED]), tissue layer thickness not included, see below.

The actual size of an individual creature is the result of different effects:

• The base BODY_SIZE for the species of creature.
• The age of the creature; most creatures are born at minimum size and grow to a maximum.

• Some, like dragons and most species of snake, grow throughout their entire lifetime and may not live long enough to reach the maximum.

• Inheritance; many creatures have [BODY_APPEARANCE_MODIFIER]) tokens that allow them to vary in height, width, or length, which they can maybe pass on to children.

The following add to size, but are not included when determining how weapons are wielded.

• Muscle mass, determined by its strength attribute (a thin dwarf with ~44210 size will be ~64210 once they become unbelievably strong), due to muscle having [THICKENS_ON_STRENGTH].
• Fat mass, due to [THICKENS_ON_ENERGY_STORAGE].^[Verify]

Creature sizes range from 1 (small insect vermin) to 200,000,000 (giant sperm whales, the largest creature in the game). See List of creatures by adult size for details.

Sample list of creature sizes in cm³

Name	Size at birth	Size at maturity	Notes
Adder	15	150	Smallest (non-vermin) creature
Rabbit	50	500	Smallest domestic animal
Cat	500	5,000
Kobold	1,000	20,000
Dog	1000	30,000
Dwarf	3,000	60,000
Giant tiercel peregrine	8,308	113,292	Smallest giant animal
Water buffalo	100,000	1,000,000	Largest domestic creature
Elephant	500,000	5,000,000	Largest natural land-based creature
Cave dragon	6,000	15,000,000	Largest cavernous creature
Sperm whale	500,000	25,000,000	Largest natural creature
Dragon	6,000	25,000,000	Largest megabeast
Giant elephant	4,000,000	40,000,000	Largest land-based creature
Giant sperm whale	4,000,000	150,000,000	Largest creature, period

Items

Most items defined in the raws require a [SIZE] token, each class of item has its own: for instance, [SIZE] for ammo, [SIZE] for weapons, [SIZE] for tools, and so on.

Item types not defined in the raws also have a size which can be determined from their weight and material density, using DFHack, or code debugging. Some assorted item type sizes, and their storage capacity when applicable:

Item Type	Volume	Capacity	Notes
Bars	6000
Cut gems	200
Blocks	6000
Rough gems	2500
Mined stone	100000
Wood logs	50000
Door	30000
Floodgate	30000
Bed	30000
Chair	30000
Chain	5000
Flask	1000	1800
Goblet	1000	1800
Instrument	4000
Toy	1000
Window	20000
Cage	30000	60000
Barrel	20000	60000
Bucket	3000	6000
Animal trap	3000	30000
Table	30000
Coffin	30000	60000
Statue	60000
Corpse	Special		Based on the size of the corpse and what it's made of.
Weapon	SIZE1
Armor	Special		Depends on armor type and the race it was crafted for. See here for some examples.
Shields	Special		Based on UPSTEP and the race that crafted it.
Box	20000	60000
Bag	1000	60000
Bin	15000	60000
Armor stand	10000	60000
Weapon rack	10000	60000
Cabinet	30000	60000
Figurine	1000
Amulet	500
Scepter	3000
Ammo	SIZE1
Crown	1000
Ring	50
Earring	30
Bracelet	200
Large gem	50
Anvil	10000
Body part	Special		Based on the size of the body part and what it's made of.
Remains	2000
Meat	2000
Fish	2000
Unprepared fish	2000
Live vermin	Special		Based on creature's adult size.
Tame vermin	Special		Based on creature's adult size.
Seeds	100
Plant	1000
Leather	5000
Plant growths	50
Thread	ceil(Dimension/50)1		Freshly gathered/produced thread has a dimension of 15000 and thus has a volume of 300
Cloth	ceil(Dimension/50)1		Freshly woven cloth has a dimension of 10000 and thus has a volume of 200
Totem	5000
Backpack	5000	30000
Quiver	3000	12000
Catapult parts	20000
Ballista parts	20000
Siege ammo	30000
Ballista arrow head	10000
Mechanisms	20000
Trap component	SIZE1
Drink	600
Powder	600
Cheese	1000
Prepared meal	1000
Misc. liquid	600
Coin	10/161		The size of a stack is 0.625 per coin, then subject to the rounding; so a single coin is 10 cm³ but a stack of 500 is 310 cm³.
Glob	600
Small rock	2000		As thrown by adventurers.
Pipe section	30000
Hatch cover	10000
Grate	10000
Quern	30000
Millstone	30000
Splint	2000
Crutch	2000
Traction bench	30000
Orthopedic cast	2000
Tool	SIZE1	CAPACITY1	Includes items such as nest boxes, jugs, large pots, hives, minecarts, wheelbarrows, stepladders, pedestals, and display cases
Slab	60000
Egg	Special		Presumably the caste's EGG_SIZE.
Book	1000
Sheet	ceil(Dimension/50)1		A fresh sheet has a dimension of 10000 and thus has a volume of 200
Branch	5000		An adventurer mode item

¹ - As noted above, all values are rounded down to the nearest multiple of 10, with a minimum value of 10.

See also

• Density
• Weight