Dropping Districts and when to chop

[Victoria]

Am I understanding? Because then why is it suggested to chop when you have an empty production cue to start the turn?

It is not suggested, someone asked if you lost it if you chopped into an empty queue.

 

[Sostratus]

Because then why is it suggested to chop when you have an empty production cue to start the turn?

The reason you would do such a thing is if it's logistically unavoidable to lose the tile feature - like placing a district or wonder on top of it.
In that case, you can wait for the production queue to empty and then chop the tile, then place the district/wonder and collect your yield.

Why not just always clear the tile beforehand?
In the early game especially, timing is very important. Perhaps you are in a rush to build something on a woods tile, like the Mausoleum, but you haven't unlocked it yet. Or maybe your city is about to hit size 4 so you can place a key district to lock its cost. Chopping out the woods to finish a monument etc early does nothing for you, since there's no way to transfer that production to the Mausoleum/district until you unlock it. The OP was originally asking about the trade-off between placing districts right away to lock in the cost and clearing the tile to utilize the chop.

 

[legalizefreedom]

Thanks for the further explanation, folks!

So you would chop on an empty queue if you specifically wanted the production to go to the district/wonder on that same tile. You do this knowing you will sacrifice your overflow from last turn.
While normally you want something in progress (as I described in my last post) to get every cog possible.

Is that about right?

 

[Victoria]

Yes but overflow only is lost, not normal production, separate buffers.
It is more a case of forgetting to put something in before chopping, it looks like it is lost but it is not, the end of the turn sorts it out for you.