What does a clean oil bus look like?

[Blind]

My first base was a spaghetti factory and served its purpose, but this time I want to have my 3 refinery outputs on a busline.

That's 4 products that need to flow cleanly on the main bus (petro/light/heavy/water) plus the crude oil input.

I don't need to include Sulfuric acid or lubricant on the main line since it can be done via a separate reservoir.

...

I don't need an exact blue print, just a ball park since I'm having trouble visualizing 4 pipes which cannot touch each other somehow leading to the same storage tank reservoir section

[Shurenai]

Pretty simple- Extend each output from the refinery from left to right or right to left; One pipe out for the first, then two, then three. each type is connected to it's neighboring refinery's matching pipe if applicable, and at whatever point you want to extend from, you use undergrounds to stretch off. At your storage section, The way I do it is just the same as at the refinery- 1, 2, 3. Each oil type is lined up but offset slightly so the pipes don't bother the other tanks.

[Shurenai]

Here's an example- You're basically braiding/weaving the pipes together in a repeating pattern- 1, 2, 3 repeat.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2974733484
I would recommend in your actual situation you give the tanks more room to breathe though, but that's easily done by spreading them further out in a straight line, or however you'd like to.

[muffins]

Originally posted by Blind:

My first base was a spaghetti factory and served its purpose, but this time I want to have my 3 refinery outputs on a busline.

That's 4 products that need to flow cleanly on the main bus (petro/light/heavy/water) plus the crude oil input.

I don't need to include Sulfuric acid or lubricant on the main line since it can be done via a separate reservoir.

...

I don't need an exact blue print, just a ball park since I'm having trouble visualizing 4 pipes which cannot touch each other somehow leading to the same storage tank reservoir section

This is what I do. Right angles. Long pipes leading off from each storage pipe which the refinery outputs plug into. It makes adding extra refineries later dead easy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=917632594

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by muffins:

This is what I do. Right angles. Long pipes leading off from each storage pipe which the refinery outputs plug into. It makes adding extra refineries later dead easy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=917632594

Ooh, Nice use of paths.. And good way of going about the handling of oil. For me, I do it the way I do because I circuit control oil cracking- So a single tank of each type is all that's needed in most situations.

[Chindraba]

One point: the "pipe"s cannot touch or they try combining, but the "pipe to ground"s can touch. Having all four come up and go back down side by side is legal. You just have to be careful at both ends to keep the turns and such from touching regular pipe units.

[Hedning]

Use undergrounds and pumps to avoid connections. Regular pipes can be placed diagonally if you want to turn.

Here nothing is connecting: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2974776209 nor here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2974776187

[knighttemplar1960]

If you are using a main bus you don't want liquids on it. With a belts only main bus you can drive your car on it and walk through without getting stuck. If you add pipes to your main bus you can't.

Process your liquids off your main assembly area and bring the products in instead.

[Blind]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

If you are using a main bus you don't want liquids on it. With a belts only main bus you can drive your car on it and walk through without getting stuck. If you add pipes to your main bus you can't.

Process your liquids off your main assembly area and bring the products in instead.

of course, this is a separate liquid bus

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by Blind:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

If you are using a main bus you don't want liquids on it. With a belts only main bus you can drive your car on it and walk through without getting stuck. If you add pipes to your main bus you can't.

Process your liquids off your main assembly area and bring the products in instead.

of course, this is a separate liquid bus

Just wanted to be certain.

[Chindraba]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

If you are using a main bus you don't want liquids on it. With a belts only main bus you can drive your car on it and walk through without getting stuck. If you add pipes to your main bus you can't.

Process your liquids off your main assembly area and bring the products in instead.

If you drive like me you have roboports and stockpiles of pipes anywhere you also have pipes. I've "killed" more pipes than the biters have. I just let the bots clean up after my wreckage. Power poles aren't safe when I drive either, with the same "answer" to the problem.

Edit: Also, when I first figured out what folks were talking about when they said "main bus" I went looking for information about them. I found several, the first few actually, where fluids were included. One or two pipes anyway. I don't recall what they were, but they had the counts of belts and the spacing and everything all worked out. Like 4 iron plate 3 copper plate 3 GC 1 each for RC coal, stone, bricks, and what ever. I've managed to avoid the main bus concept and don't recall the real figures, but they had them. I think the pipes were petro and light, maybe water. Still, recommendations do exist for fluids as part of the "bus". I do think I'll be using a bus to feed my mall for the TINS game though. Still, it's all down to what someone prefers, even when it goes against conventional wisdom.

[Нагризолич]

You don't need light oil, you can turn it into rocket fuel on the spot. You don't need heavy oil in your factories, you turn it into lubricant. That makes it two pipes. Moreover, lubricant is only used for blue logistics and electric engines, so you generally don't need a "bus" for that, just a pipe that goes directly where it is needed.

[Hurkyl]

Heavy oil, in particular, is mainly used for two purposes:

• Making Lubricant
  
• Making light oil

Both require resources already being delivered to your oil processing center. The first requires very little extra space to do. The second is basically part of your oil processing.

So, I think it is fairly uncommon to export heavy oil: you just turn it into lubricant on the spot and crack any surplus.

The situation for light oil is less of a no-brainer, since making solid fuel and rocket fuel can take up quite a bit of space. However, I think it is still relatively common to do that as part of your oil processing center? Again, no extra resources need to be shipped in to do this, it's just the space requirement... and (IMO) solid fuel production is sort of part of oil processing in the first place, since to some extent it helps you efficiently manage your usage of the three oil products.

[a-bullet]

just to remind you of an easy workaround to any pipe / tank-trouble: use barrels
okay, you will need a few belts going back with empty barrels

[Blind]

skipping heavy oil as an export does kinda make sense, I almost never have any of it

[Нагризолич]

Originally posted by Blind:

skipping heavy oil as an export does kinda make sense, I almost never have any of it

What you need is a system that monitors three tanks with gas, light and heavy oil, and whenever they start to fill up (heavy oil>24k), you enable a pump that drains it into light oil cracking->gas cracking. You only need two red or green wires, one for each.
If, for some reason, your gas tank overfills, which usually happens when you're done with your current science but still need a lot of blue belts for your next factory, you can either add 30 gas tanks or craft gas into cubes to make rocket fuel. While second is way less efficient, oil is usually infinite in terms of application possibilities, therefore you can block output belts from light oil->cubes and gas->cubes.