The conveyor system is confusing AF

[Quokka]

Dead ends, no proper drop points... Just give us more options or label/tooltip the pieces better.

[LatN's Strategy]

New series starts tomorrow which may help...
https://youtu.be/oOk6bQDJ6Yg

[Gamer of Indeterminate Gender]

Anyone have advice that isn't behind a video?

[Pezza83]

Don't have much experience but this it what i have found out whilst playing around. The finished end of the conveyor belt must be a garage port, this is where everything will drop and be collected by the courier, the courier must also have a designated parking space. Each garage space will only gather a certain amount of stock so further up the line you will need pallets which will be used to store extra stock, these will also need a couple of extra parts attached to the belt, not sure what they are called but one will drop them on the pallets when needed and the other will start picking them off once there is space at the courier bay. At the production end you will need your printers, you can put these next to each other on a belt if you have room, don't need one belt per printer just line them up if you want to.
Other than the courier, production is fully automated, once you have the jobs loaded in and the courier setup it will just continue to work. I have not tried any hardware manufacturing yet so can't help with that but pretty sure it would work the same way. Hope this helps a little

[Jim]

I think a video would probably be more helpful, but here goes.

First, a caveat, I've only played around with printing, not manufacturing, so my experience is a bit limited. I've used Conveyor Belts (ground based), Pallet Drop Points, Pallet Pickup Points, Splitters, Pallets, and both types of Garage Ports (the only difference is which side the conveyor belt enters).

It will probably be more helpful if I just describe my setup and say why it works.
First, I place the garage ports. These are the outputs, and they must go against a wall. It will look like a big gaping hole in your wall, but don't worry; burglars can't walk through them.

Then I grab a conveyor belt (ground based). I click and drag (holding shift so I can place multiples) in the direction I want the boxes to go (generally, in the vague direction of the garage ports). I'll see blue and white lines and arrows indicating direction of motion for the belts. I keep clicking to add more belts until I reach the point where I want to turn to make the boxes connect with the garage port.

There is no special tool or piece for making the conveyor belt turn. You just stop in one place and begin again in another direction in the next space. When the conveyor belt ends, it will automatically push its boxes onto any conveyor belt in front of it. It won't drop the boxes on the floor (I don't think; I didn't actually try) or a pallet. You need a tool for that. I used to think you needed a splitter to change direction, but you don't (although you certainly can use them for that; they look nicer). The splitter has one input (the back of the arrow when you place it) and three outputs. You don't have to use all of the outputs. It will eject boxes forward and to the left and right if there are conveyor belts there to pick them up. It splits the boxes up as evenly as possible among the valid outputs.

Next, I place my printers. The small and medium printers go right on the belt, and you can place them one after another. Don't worry about adding any spaces to deal with jams because they all drop at exactly the same time and then there is a long pause (like an in game hour or so) before they drop another box. It's a long wait, and it's very easy to miss the production if you aren't paying attention. Most of the time, it will look like your printers are doing nothing (I'll get that in a moment). The large printer, instead, goes beside the conveyor belt and the flat part hangs over it, dropping its boxes just like the others (It just takes up more space). These can also go side by side.

Before my conveyor system reaches the garage ports, I want a long line to give myself room for storage. I place down pallets along the line (right next to the conveyor belt - no need for extra spacing). Then I place a Pallet Drop-off Point on the conveyor belt with the ladder pointing toward the pallet. Then, next to it, and further down the conveyor belt, I place a Pallet Pickup Point, again with the ladder pointing to the pallet.

The way the logic works is this. The conveyor belt tries to ignore all pallets and drop off and pick up points if it can. It will just move the boxes right along until it reaches the garage port, and the port will grab the boxes and drop them in the big square space it takes up (I think it holds up to 72 boxes, but don't quote me on that). If (and only if) the port is full, then the conveyor belt will start to back up. If a box ends where a pallet drop off point rests next to a pallet, the drop off point will grab the box and stack it on the pallet, allowing the conveyor belt to continue moving. If there are boxes on the pallet and no boxes on the conveyor belt at the position of the pickup point (the ladder), then the pickup point will grab a box from the pallet and put it on the belt. Thus, the drop off point tries to empty a full (and stopped) conveyor belt, and the pickup point tries to fill and empty and moving conveyor belt.

So, how do I get all this started. I got to the manufacturing button (among the menu items at the bottom of the screen), and I click on it. It has two tabs: one for printing and one for manufacturing. If I see nothing, then the printers will do nothing. Next, I go to my releases (or to my deals if I want to take a printing deal), and I click on the product I want to print, and I go down to the button on the New Releases menu marked Print (I can't quite recall if this is hidden behind the Order Copies menu or not). Type in the number you want to print, and it will queue up a print job.

Now, I go back into the manufacturing menu again (bottom of the screen), and I see the queue of print jobs in the print tab. If I want to I can change how many copies will get printed. This is where it got confusing for me. There are two ways to change the amount to be printed: Limit and Maximum. This is weird. The Limit button allows you to specify a single job: Print this many copies and then stop. The Maximum button is actually setting a MINIMUM amount of copies that you want the printers to keep in stock or in storage. When the total amount equals the maximum that you set, the printers will pause. If it falls below that amount, they will start up again until they reach or exceed that number (based on your production setup). If you take a deal, the deal will set the limit for you, but you might want to fiddle with the priority if you have multiple jobs printing at once.

Okay, so the last part is arguably the most important. How do I get rid of all these darn boxes, so I can make some dang money? Well, you need to ship the boxes out to the stores (transferring them from "storage" to "in stock"). To do that, you need couriers or a helipad. The helipad is expensive, so don't do that unless you know you're ready.

Whenever possible you want the couriers to be on staff, rather than called at need. It's much cheaper this way. Each courier will arrive at your company at the designated time (you must have parking available for them, and, for efficiency, I recommend reserving a spot that is close to the garage port. He/She will step out of the truck go to the garage port and grab an enormous stack of boxes, which will magically become small while carried, reaching through the hole in the wall to do it. Then the courier will drop the boxes in the van and go back for more until the van is full or there are no more boxes. The van can carry approximately 50 boxes (maybe 54?) if you have your timing set to one month per day. By default the courier will wait around until the enough boxes get printed to fill the van or until the scheduled time for the staff member runs out (It's a good idea to create a lounge where these lazy good-for-nothing layabouts can hang out). Then the van will drive away with your boxes, and they instantly go to "in stock," presumably meaning the stores that sell your stuff. The courier will not return that day, so if 50 boxes isn't enough to clear your production queue, you'll need multiple couriers (or a helipad).

I hope that helps.
-Jim.

P.S. A few quick warnings. Printers and manufacturing machines need maintenance, but they don't otherwise need any regular employees to attend to them. Make sure the room is accessible, but don't bother to gussy it up. Decorations are a waste. Also, temperature does matter for these things (don't worry about the big hole in the wall garage ports; they won't make it any worse for some reason), and they can catch fire. Set up fire alarms and sprinklers, and keep in mind that burglars will make a beeline for your valuable product if they can get inside (through doors, not ports). Finally, these machines are noisy, try to keep them away from your easily distracted regular employees.

P.P.S. After you print your first 100 000 copies or so, the game will reward you by unlocking a box elevator. This special tool allows you to print or manufacture stuff in the basement and then just move the boxes up onto a conveyor belt on the floor above. It can help you get more space and/or isolate your machine noise.

[freelancer909]

Just a tip if your doing complicated set ups manufacturing. You can put the number you want to print in the layout. Say 1M It will then show what machines you need to buy. Remember to use high speed belts with manufacturing. Also it is best to put them all in a long line so the boxes dont get slowed down at meeting points of belts. have places where IT can cross long lines as they skip from machine to machine based on need. Have a large empty spare room to move entire machines around it will help you out on getting things laid out.