FIELD NOTES / CRANE GAMES

So you think you can crane plan?

Six quick challenges. Find your reach, balance your cranes, and test your erection plan.

One setup.

One crawler. Five picks. Find the spot that reaches them all.

Your job: erect five picks from one crawler setup. Position the crane so every load is within its modeled capacity, while keeping the building, storage area and truck access clear.

SITE PLAN 01Drag the crane · tap to place
TRUCK ACCESS · KEEP CLEARBUILDING FOOTPRINTNO SETUPSTORAGE30 FT
✓ Within game limit× Out of reachDashed ring = selected pick’s limit
WITHIN GAME LIMIT0 / 5

Fine-tune position

What this puzzle makes visible

Crane placement is a compromise between load, distance, and the space around the work. A setup that reaches one pick may not handle the next.

A few terms, explained

A pick is one lifting operation. Radius is the horizontal distance from the crane’s center to the load. Tap A–E to compare their limits.

Explore the idea in Field Notes

About these crane-planning puzzles

Field Notes explores how steel erection plans connect physical work, time, and resources. These small games turn a few of those decisions into something you can try: move a crane, share the work, or change the erection method and watch what happens.

No crane-planning experience is required. The numbers are invented to make the tradeoffs easy to see. A winning game plan is not a field-ready erection plan.

Real crane planning also requires equipment-specific load charts and configurations, rigging and load-sharing checks, ground conditions, clearances, temporary stability, access, weather, and qualified review. Those checks are outside these games.

Read Field Notes ↗

PLAN COMPLETE

Last pick’s in.