Conveyors, Filters, Launchers, Portals, and Pipes (v0.5.7)

Tested build: Sandustry v0.5.7, vanilla. These rules are not guaranteed to match pipe networks or Filter Wall tricks built before v0.5.7.

You know the scene: every belt is moving, the Shaker looks busy, and somehow the Gold line is empty while a beige geological event forms beside it. Do not rebuild the whole factory yet. In Sandustry, one trapped bottom pixel can hold the pile above it still. Find the first point where material stops, test that segment alone, and the industrial organism may wake right back up.

Read Every Route as Input → Transport → Output

Solid route: contained feed → Conveyor or Launcher → Filter or Conveyor Portal → clear catch area. Fluid route: sealed source → Pump → connected Pipe network → Liquid Vent → sealed reservoir.

Build the destination first. A transport piece cannot push material through a full machine, solid wall, packed catch pocket, or submerged Vent. Leave each handoff visible until it survives both a small test and a full-buffer test.

Conveyor Belts

Direction: follow the belt animation. Input: solid pixels resting on the belt. Output: the far end, where pixels are pushed over the edge. With the default controls, hold Shift while placing a belt to reverse it. If you changed your bindings, use the displayed reverse-placement control.

Only the bottom pixels touching the Conveyor Belt are driven. The rest of the pile rides on them. If that bottom layer meets a wall, full buffer, or blocked drop, the whole stack waits behind it. Water and other fluids ignore belt direction and move across the belt surface under gravity.

Point the final belt tile toward open space, a Launcher intake, or a receiving chamber.
Put walls beneath and beside any drop so stray pixels cannot escape into another line.
Throttle a deep feed with a low ceiling or smaller opening. A thin stream is easier to sort than a moving dune.

Filters: Allow, Block, and Wall Mode

A basic Filter is a Conveyor Belt that sorts one selected solid. Its input follows the belt direction. The filtered output falls through the Filter, while the other output continues along the belt.

Allow Gold: Gold falls through. Every other solid continues along the belt.
Block Gold: every other eligible solid falls through. Gold continues along the belt.

Give both outputs a real destination: one below and one beyond the Filter. Dense material settles near the belt and is easier to pull through, so remove dense targets such as Gold before lighter material when possible. A tall mixed pile can carry a valid target too far above the Filter to pass through. Thin the feed or lengthen the filtered section instead of blaming innocent machinery.

Keep Water away from a basic Filter carrying dry Sand or Seeds. Basic Filters configure solids; liquid can pass through them. A Sand or Seed pixel can combine with Water while inside the Filter and become Wet Sand or a Wet Seed. The changed material can then stick because it no longer matches the rule that admitted it. Stop the feed and remove it by hand.

Wall mode: with the default controls, select the Filter and press R to switch from the horizontal conveyor form to the vertical Filter Wall. The wall form applies the same Allow or Block rule to material trying to cross it from the side. In v0.5.7, do not use a picked Filter Wall as a pass-through floor; that unintended top-to-bottom behavior was fixed. Advanced Filters can select several materials and can handle solids, liquids, and gases, but both sides still need clear space.

Launchers

Direction: upward through a straight column, then toward the facing side if the top is angled. Input: solid pixels entering a Launcher tile. Output: airborne pixels leaving the top. Launchers are permeable to liquids and gases, so place them inside containment when Water is nearby.

A vertical Launcher column can lift solids through a tall shaft. Angle only the top piece when you want to throw material sideways. During placement, the top aims toward the side nearest the cursor; the straight vertical edge marks the front and the sloped edge is the back. With the default controls, hold Shift while placing a column when every piece should point straight up.

Launchers check for material on a timer, so a short pause is normal. At the top, pixels keep some speed before gravity pulls them down. Start with a fully walled test box, send a measured batch, and mark where the first pixels strike. Then size the floor, ceiling, and side walls around the full observed spread. If the throw is too long, try a basic top Launcher, shorten the clear flight, or let the stream strike a ceiling and fall into the receiver. Measure again after every change; a Launcher does not promise a perfectly even split.

Conveyor Portals

Direction: entrance → paired exit. Input: a clean material stream entering the designated entrance. Output: the paired exit. Place the entrance on the incoming route and release the exit into its own contained belt or catch pocket. Conveyor Portals let one production route cross another without combining the two routes; they do not sort a stream that was already mixed.

Commission the pair before enclosing it. Keep the crossed route empty and send one known sample into the intended entrance. The sample must appear only at the paired exit and clear into storage. If it stops, empty the exit pocket, check the pair and direction, and repeat the sample test. If two materials mix after teleporting, inspect the ordinary belts and catch cells after the exits. The Portal may be working while the nearby geometry quietly reunites the streams. v0.5.7 fixed incorrect Portal pairing after a default Ctrl+H mirror, but test every mirrored pair before feeding valuable output.

Pumps, Pipes, and Liquid Vents

Pump direction: touching liquid → attached Pipe network. A Pump must sit on a Pipe and touch the liquid being collected. Every pixel of the Pump can take in liquid, but solid material inside its non-solid space can interrupt collection. Pumps cannot move Lava.

Pipe direction: none. Pipes form a shared network between connected Pumps and Liquid Vents. They occupy a separate building layer, so they can pass through structures, terrain, and solid material, including indestructible terrain, but not through Artifact rooms. Select Pipes Mode to inspect routes hidden behind terrain. Use the Pipe tool and right-click a Pipe tile to remove that section.

v0.5.7 connection rule: adjacent new Pipes no longer join automatically. To extend an existing network, start or end the new run on an existing Pipe tile. When a new run crosses another pipe line, the crossing creates a Pipe Bridge so the two networks can remain separate. Do not assume a pre-v0.5.7 layout kept the same connections after updating.

Vent direction: connected network → surrounding world. A Liquid Vent releases any non-Lava liquid supplied by its network, then gravity takes over. It stops releasing when liquid covers all but its top row. A fully submerged Pump can take in 16 pixels per tick, while each unobstructed Vent can release up to four, so one fully supplied Pump can support up to four Vents at their maximum rates. Partial Pump contact, blocked outlets, and submerged Vents reduce useful flow.

Do not combine Water with another liquid on one Pipe network unless mixed output is acceptable. Vents do not sort the network for you. Build one network per liquid and use Pipe Bridges where routes cross. After sending a small test amount, check the overlay color, which shows the last liquid carried by the pipe, before opening the full source.

One-Segment Commissioning Test

Piece	Isolated test	Passing result
Conveyor	Place a short belt over a sealed floor. Add a small pile at one end.	The test solids move with the animation and drop into the catch pocket.
Filter	Use two known solids. Test Allow first, empty both exits, then test Block.	The selected rule sends material below or through the wall while the other route stays separate.
Launcher	Feed one small batch into one column with an empty, walled landing box.	The batch reaches the intended side and none escapes the measured catch area.
Conveyor Portal	Keep the crossed line empty. Send one known sample through the intended entrance.	The sample appears only at the paired exit and clears into storage.
Pump	Place one Pump on a short Pipe with a small, clean liquid pool touching it.	The source level falls without solids collecting inside the Pump.
Pipe	Place a one-branch run between the tested Pump and Vent. Start or end the run on the existing network tile.	Liquid reaches the Vent, and no merely adjacent pipe joins the branch.
Liquid Vent	Connect one Vent above an empty, sealed basin.	Liquid appears at the Vent and stops when supply ends or the Vent becomes submerged.

Find the Jam by Its Shape

Visible symptom	Likely cause and fix
The belt animation points away from the machine.	The segment is reversed. Stop the feed and replace it using the reverse-placement control.
The front pixel is still and the pile grows backward.	The exit or downstream buffer is full. Clear the destination first, then work upstream.
Correct material rides past a Filter.	Check Allow versus Block, then thin the pile so the target reaches the Filter surface.
Nothing leaves the bottom of a Filter.	The lower exit is blocked, the chosen material never reached it, or material changed state inside. Empty the cell and retest one sample.
Two products appear in the same lane.	Stop both inputs. Trace each route alone and inspect the first shared catch cell, Portal exit, or Pipe connection.
A Launcher bounces material at the top.	The top points straight up or the intended landing area is full. Aim the top toward open space, then clear and widen the catch box.
A Pump touches liquid but flow stops.	Remove solid contamination from the Pump, inspect Pipe continuity, and check connected Vents for blocked or submerged outlets.
A Vent is quiet while another outlet works.	The quiet Vent may be submerged or blocked by its reservoir. Lower the liquid level or move the outlet higher.

Safe Shutdown and Overflow

For solids, stop the incoming feed before touching the jam. Let moving material clear, empty the final buffer, then clean backward one segment at a time. Put a walled overflow bin beside the last useful Filter or belt drop. Keep it lower than nearby production lines so excess material falls somewhere harmless instead of backfilling the Gold path.

For fluids, seal the source away from the Pump and let the remaining output enter a closed basin before editing Pipes. Put a sealed overflow reservoir below a low spill lip in the main basin, and keep the Vent above the normal fill line. Rising liquid can then spill into the reserve before it reaches nearby solids. If the liquid reaches the Vent itself, the submerged Vent stops releasing rather than pumping forever into a full basin.

Restart with one small batch, then one normal burst. Watch every handoff before restoring full input. No Sandustry layout is jam-proof under every material load, but visible segments, separate liquid networks, and honest overflow space make a factory wonderfully good at telling you exactly where it hurts.

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