Any way to close off the room if an axle is entering it?

[Broccoli Clock]

I have a room, it's too big to be an actual room, but I intend on sorting that out later.

However, when moving the windmill as part of the remodel, I needed to put the axel through the roof.

When I do the /debug rooms hi it shows it as red, but that red area extends onto the roof and things above, and it seems to be down to the axle not counting as a full block. I've tried replacing the slabs round it to being full blocks but that didn't resolve it.

Is it just the case that if I want to have a windmill axle coming into a room, it can't be classed as a room by VS because it's not fully blocked off?

[wasa]

as far as vanilla is concerned, the only way i've found out is to use a quern as an "axle" as part of the roof, as the bottom of the quern is an "insulated face" valid for rooms. just have axles on the top and bottom and it'll deliver power from one side to the other. of course it's not ideal since you lose energy powering the quern.

there's also a mod that adds axles inside of blocks too, if you prefer to do that.

[Brady_The]

21 minutes ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Is it just the case that if I want to have a windmill axle coming into a room, it can't be classed as a room by VS because it's not fully blocked off?

That's exactly what's happening.

I'd highly recommend using this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/axleinblocks. It's one of those which really should be in the base game.

[AnniPicto]

There is only 1 way to isolate a room. If you use a millstone, you can place the mill shaft to its bottom (place all other shafts under the floor and behind the wall). If you use a helve hammer, it is not possible. I put the helve hammer in the forge to a small room behind wide doors that are constantly open. This creates the illusion of a single room, but the main part of the forge is warm. There is 1 mod that solves the problem of room isolation and now it is updated. https://mods.vintagestory.at/axleinblocks But in the past it was not updated every time and this was a problem for us.

[Broccoli Clock]

Thanks for the replies, and the suggestions. This is vanilla, so no mods. As it is, it's not a requirement that this area turn into a room, but equally it would be nice if it was.

Never realised the quern had a "pass through" of power. I had hoped that when placing the axle through the roof, it would provide supports (like it does with other blocks) and that would be enough to block in the room.

It's not a big deal, just wanted to see if others found a way around this.

 

Edited March 13, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[Cattastrafy]

This was an interesting read.

I was gonna make a second cellar room off the first one, with 3 querns and a clutch in the wall to turn em off and on. Sounds like the exposed wall with the axles will invalidate it? Not a big deal, just means I can't store grain like I was gonna in that room vs the other.

[Dark Thoughts]

2 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Never realised the quern had a "pass through" of power.

It doesn't. They're saying you can put it in the floor or ceiling since it can be powered by both sides, and consequently still accessed from within a sealed room that way. In vanilla there's no way to seal a room with mechanical power at the moment.

[wasa]

21 hours ago, Dark Thoughts said:

It doesn't. They're saying you can put it in the floor or ceiling since it can be powered by both sides, and consequently still accessed from within a sealed room that way. In vanilla there's no way to seal a room with mechanical power at the moment.

it does, though i misspoke, you have to connect the power from the bottom specifically which spins the top, including any mechanical parts attached to it

[Dark Thoughts]

3 hours ago, wasa said:

it does, though i misspoke, you have to connect the power from the bottom specifically which spins the top, including any mechanical parts attached to it

So it's one way only? That seems like a bug then.

[Maelstrom]

more of an exploit of how the quern is powered

[HugoCortell]

A suggestion post is in order imo, seems like a really solid vanilla addition.

[Michael Gates]

This is a *good* thing-- an interesting problem given to you by the developers, with a clever solution you can figure out. Contrast with, say, "health bar for water," which is just "you lose an inventory slot forever because you're carrying a canteen."

[LadyWYT]

8 hours ago, HugoCortell said:

A suggestion post is in order imo, seems like a really solid vanilla addition.

It's a suggestion that comes up fairly often. I'm not sure if it's something that will ever be added to the vanilla game or not. It seems a likely candidate for some later addition...perhaps once we have more machinery? 

[wildforester]

If axles are waterlogable that may work.

[Dark Thoughts]

20 hours ago, wildforester said:

If axles are waterlogable that may work.

I believe for greenhouses you have to count from the block below the water sources so I don't think water will work at all for this.

[Facethief]

On 7/1/2025 at 11:18 PM, LadyWYT said:

It's a suggestion that comes up fairly often. I'm not sure if it's something that will ever be added to the vanilla game or not. It seems a likely candidate for some later addition...perhaps once we have more machinery? 

I think 1.22 was supposed to be the mechanical update? I’m not sure, but either that or .23 might bring something for this.

If it were up to me, I’d make the pass through take up a little mechanical stress, just to make people not run power through a cliffside or ten rooms.

[Dirtyhippy]

I think it would be cool if you were able to use dry grass and "pack" it into the space as insulation like you do when covering pottery to fire it.

[Maelstrom]

On 7/4/2025 at 6:48 AM, Facethief said:

I think 1.22 was supposed to be the mechanical update? I’m not sure

1.22 is mostly a polish update.  But the dark recesses of my mind keep rumbling about an increase in hints about waterwheels from the devs.   I'm likely wrong and suffering from some elderly GenX mental breakdown or something, so take anything I say 'bout waterwheels with a grain (or handful) of salt.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

On 10/27/2025 at 6:44 PM, Dirtyhippy said:

I think it would be cool if you were able to use dry grass and "pack" it into the space as insulation like you do when covering pottery to fire it.

I like your idea, but I think crafting a pass-through bearing with fat or beeswax would be a more elegant solution, especially if you can choose the type of base block the bearing appears as: wood, ashlar, cobble, etc. This makes the player have to make conscious decisions regarding base building, which I like. Haphazardly building your base and windmill is great at first but if you want to seal up the room, you need to decide what block to put there, just like you do when building anything quality.

[Maelstrom]

Until options are added, the best I've found is isolate mechanical machines in an internal room enclosed with a door.  Door doesn't need to close and somehow creates a thermal curtain.

[Broccoli Clock]

I started this thread when I had just started playing, and I was hung up on the rooms mechanic. Now I am well aware that for a smeltery, you don't need the room sealed. Do I still think it should be possible? Yes, it would be nice, but it's far from essential in any way.

I think most (although maybe that's just me making up figures) would end up having a separate building/room for things that require power, and don't really need them to be sealed. Obviously a lot of that will depend on how cold the weather is at your location. I'm guessing forges give off heat, after all camp fires do.

[Maelstrom]

In my most recent world, I built my windmill on top of a mountain y=200 to maximize power and minimize power loss through a long axle.  This location became deathly cold during the winter so enclosed the quad hammer in a room while my forge and smelter were safely enclosed in an adjoining room.   Since you can leave doors open and not lose the heat benefit of a room, a double door can still keep that open concept feel while isolating the unsealed mechanical room.

Next time I hop into that world, I'll try remeber to take a screenshot and post it here.

[Michael Gates]

I mean, it doesn't look like much!

 

[Shoom]

Here's my solution for an airtight, automated pulverizer/quern accessible from kitchen/smithy. 

The quern is powered from above, with a input vessel, 3 hoppers chuting into a vessel at the bottom (not the ideal 4 hopper setup but I couldn't fit it, this works adequately enough) 

The pulverizer has the input chest on the above floor, accessible through a door.

Getting this all to work was a tedious endeavor (an eldritch abomination of axles and gears live inside my walls) but being able to do everything from one (warm) room is quite nice.

[Yerik]

Beautiful building!