How to split items into specific quantity

[weak elk]

I'm currently making 5.5 items/s and I want to split them into these specific quantities so everything is perfect, is there a way to split them perfectly or do I need to produce more and then split a bigger quantity of items than the calculated quantity?

[tiny prairie]

really you can just run a splitter with priority to feed it, and anything thats not able to be consumed will backup and continue on the belt to the next item

[young geyser]

Unlike Satisfactory where you can underclock and get more benefit from prefect ratios, Factorio is is usually always better to not do specific quantities and instead allowing flow through. That is why the buss is the most common way of dealing with products by just dividing it off till its full and allowing excess through to the next.

If you want to still try ,look at belt balancers. I tend to only use them at unloading stations or merging multiple belts.

[weak elk]

the bus seems like a good strategy, im too deep in the spaghetti to change it tho so ill just embrace it for now but apply the same logic basically

[analog saddle]

Factorio is not that precise a game. You can kind of get away with it early game, but later on everything is a mess with productivity, potentially research dependent productivity and fractional boosts from beacons.

My recommendation is to at least make enough to fulfill all of the demands, and then "manifold" the items to each of the lines. Over time all lines will have the items "compress" on the belts and run at full speed.

[weak elk]

yeah my base is getting really confusing, idk if later on i destroy everything and build a bus or if i just restart

[tiny prairie]

rebuilding the base later is valid strat

[novel vessel]

Pro tip: Delaying the rebuild at least until after you get construction bots is a much less frustrating task. Also, leaving the first build in place to provide supplies for the 2nd base means you get to build the 2nd one much larger without running out of assemblers, inserters, etc.

[weak elk]

is there any guide of how to build a bus? how to structure everything? i dont think i can make any more science pack in my base

[woven warren]

The key design philosophy behind a (main) bus is that you have a bunch of belts with different basic resources (iron/copper/circuits) that run in straight parallel lines through the middle of your base.
All production facilities are built perpendicular to those lines. You use a splitter to take some resources from the bus, and run it 90 degrees from the bus, make some production with it, and then send the result of that production back to the bus to either join an existing line or to become a new line depending on whether that resources is already on your bus

when your base starts looking like a bar chart, you're probably doing it right

[weak elk]

yeah but i don't know where to send my resources to, to the left of the bus? and then smelt everything there? should i send them there by train or transport belt?

[woven warren]

For example (this is a very old picture, ignore the actual recipes)

the horizontal belts in this picture is what we call the bus

production facilities are placed perpendicular to it (either on top or on the bottom. In this picture it's only on top)

and like I mentioned, the factory starts looking like a bar graph

if you need more production of a certain thing, you can increase the "bar" on the graph that's making that resource

[woven warren]

Usually the "Main bus" starts after you've already smelted the plates. A bus is an easy organizational tool to distribute a single resource to a whole bunch of different production facilities.
In the case of iron/copper ore there is really only 1 place they need to go. That's smelting (technically iron ore is also used in concrete, but that's an exception). So there's not really any reason to put the ore on the bus.
Iron and copper plates however are used everywhere, so it's very useful to have it on the bus.

As to how to decide where to put everything. Look at the map, find a nice and clear open space where you can go in the same direction for a while without hitting water or a bunch of cliffs/biter nests, and just start building the bus belts in that direction.

[weak elk]

my base is like this, really confusing, so now i just destroy it and build a bus in for example that area on the map?

[supple grove]

You can just run the resources onto a bus nearby your base

[weak elk]

but all of my resources are already going into making science packs

[supple grove]

I'd expand your resource production and run a line to the bus

If you can get all of your iron and copper plates into a belt, you can start running a bus from there

[novel vessel]

The solution: make more resources.

The factory hungers for iron and copper plates.