Pipe Dock Standards
Pipes (and high-voltage cables) can connect across docking airlocks. That lets grids transfer gases — including buying and selling gas on cargo-style docks.
This page is about dock pipe layers. For station paint / decal colours, use Mapping Colors.
Pipe standardization table
Shared language for “primary pipe”, “secondary pipe”, and so on:
| Pipe | Ordinal | North–South | East–West | Pipe colour | Prototype example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empty (no pipes) | Primary (pipe #1) | Middle | Middle | n/a | GasPipeStraight |
| Gas buying | Secondary (pipe #2) | 2nd from right | 2nd from top | #DAB73AFF |
GasPipeStraightAlt1 |
| Gas selling | Tertiary (pipe #3) | 2nd from left | 2nd from bottom | #3FA43FFF |
GasPipeStraightAlt2 |
| Distribution | Quaternary (pipe #4) | Right | Top | #0055CCFF |
GasPipeStraightAlt3 |
| Waste | Quinary (pipe #5) | Left | Bottom | #990000FF |
GasPipeStraightAlt4 |
Notes:
- This standard applies to ship docking, not every pipe on the station.
- The middle (primary) layer is intentionally left empty on docks.
- Buying and selling layers are only required on docks that actually buy/sell gas (for example cargo gas haulers). Distro + waste alone is fine for many docks.
- Ordinal numbering is off-by-one from prototype
AltNsuffixes (secondary →Alt1, tertiary →Alt2, …).
Quick colouring on a connected network:
colornetwork [pipe ID] Pipe #0055CCFF
colornetwork [pipe ID] Pipe #990000FF
(Pipe must be capitalized.)
Full dock — buying and selling
Use when loading or unloading gas cargo:
- Selling
- Buying
- Distribution
- Waste
- HV power cable
Half dock — distro and waste
Use when buy/sell is not needed:
- Distribution
- Waste
- HV power cable
Camera rotation quirks
Pipe “left/right/top/bottom” descriptions are relative to camera orientation. Rotating the camera can look confusing, but the ordinal order stays consistent.
HV cables
Run an HV cable under the docking airlock tile so power can cross the dock.