Stacking things that move
A tall stack only looks right if each layer lags a little behind the one below: the bottom pelican bobs first, the rails follow, and the controller tilts last.
The stack
Five layers, one boardwalk
The drawing started as a joke prompt and turned into an exercise in load paths: every layer has to sit on something, and every wheel has to be driven by something.
Only the bottom pelican actually walks. Everything above it rides along on rails, chains and a good deal of trust.
- Controller.Sits on the saddle and steers by cable.
- Yellow bicycle.Disc rear wheel, bolted to the top rail.
- Brown pelican.Pedals, and holds a fish for later.
- Teal bicycle.Rides on the lower rail; the reins run down to the beak below.
- White pelican.Carries everything under a striped blanket, and does all the walking.
From the notebook
Keeping drawing templates tidy
Most layout problems start in the template: unused text styles, forgotten layers and dimension styles copied from three different projects. Purge and document it once.
Label placement, revisited
Automatic labels work best with a few strict rules: never overlap geometry, keep one offset, and sort by elevation before placing anything.
On small scripts
A fifty-line script that removes one repetitive step is often worth more than a large tool that tries to do everything.
About
A notebook, not a shop
Pelican Works is a personal notebook kept between projects: mechanisms worked out on paper, drafting habits worth keeping, and the occasional small tool.
Nothing here is for sale. There is no newsletter and no comment box, and the pelicans do not take questions.
Palette
Night#34105d
Magenta#c92960
Sunset#eb633c
Afterglow#e8a458
Tide#c64c7d
Boardwalk#c48868
Blanket#3f9282
Pouch#f29651