8 ms·

Hello, This Is London Rising: 3D Printing Maps from LIDAR Data

140 points by andrewgodwin 10y ago

ChuckMcM 10y ago
Printing it in a stereo lithography machine (think FormLABS) would get you the details you wanted. That said, from the photo it looks very nice on the wall.
zodPod 10y ago
Really awesome project @andrewgodwin! I'd love to do something like this for Pittsburgh as well!
- Isamu 10y ago
  What are the available data sets for Pgh?
  - zodPod 10y ago
    That's a good question. Not sure!
    - Isamu 10y ago
      Best I could find right now: Lidar point cloud data http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pamap/lidar/index.htm#clouds http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pamap/lidar/index.htm#cl... Looks like Allegheny county was done in 2006. What is nice about the point cloud data is that they classified each point as ground, road, water, etc
michalskop 10y ago
How about printing a landscape from a map/contour lines? Do you think it is possible for example from OSM data? (That London looks totally cool.)
- andrewgodwin 10y ago
  As long as you can convert the data into a height field it's possible. I reckon you could do contours with interpolation.
- buckhx 10y ago
  In college my group used topo maps and a laser cutter to construct a map of Colorado. The burned edges had a really nice effect http://www.instructables.com/id/TwitMap-Topographical-Colorado-Twitter-Map/ http://www.instructables.com/id/TwitMap-Topographical-Colora...
- maxerickson 10y ago
  OSM is just vectors, there aren't a lot of limits on what the data can be used for. This was recently posted to /r/openstreetmap: https://touch-mapper.org/ https://touch-mapper.org/ I really don't have a sense of how useful such a map would be, but it's exactly a 3d extrusion of OSM data.
  - saganus 10y ago
    This is very interesting! I don't really have anyone close that is visually impaired but this would be super cool to have at 3D printing events and such. Very neat idea.
- dougmccune 10y ago
  I'll plug an open source lib I wrote called shp2stl that converts shapefiles into 3D models suitable for printing. http://dougmccune.com/blog/2014/12/30/using-shp2stl-to-convert-maps-to-3d-models/ http://dougmccune.com/blog/2014/12/30/using-shp2stl-to-conve...
- thatcherc 10y ago
  It's not exactly contour lines, but I made a site [0] that creates STL files from a global digital elevation model. You can select a region of the Earth and get a 3D printable file of its terrain. Might be close to what you're looking for! [0] - http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/
bjelkeman-again 10y ago
That is a really nice project. Having lived in London, and having a 3D printer I am very tempted.
6stringmerc 10y ago
Very interesting project and glad to see the documentation and results! Had me thinking this might be a fun long-term art project, where a city like this could be given color details by hand using various inks and/or paints. Just a thought inspired by the clever undertaking seen here.
Animats 10y ago
Nice. An interesting map is an exaggerated-relief map of Europe as far east as Moscow, with marks for all known battles. Over the centuries, they were mostly in the same places. It gives you a sense of how geography affects politics.
lolryan 10y ago
NYC performed a LIDAR scan of NYC in conjunction with CUNY a few years ago so that they could build a 'solar map' to help estimate how much solar capacity could be installed on a building. Anyone know where to grab the LIDAR scan data from?
- evan_ 10y ago
  If you can't find it, you may be able to file a FOIA request for it.
- CognitiveLens 10y ago
  https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/1-foot-Digital-Elevation-Model-DEM-/dpc8-z3jc https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/1-foot-Digital...
  - CognitiveLens 10y ago
    also https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Environment/Landcover-Raster-Data-2010-/9auy-76zt https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Environment/Landcover-Raster-D...
analognoise 10y ago
It's good to see LIDAR in the news! I work at Advanced Scientific Concepts (FPGA engineer), our flash LIDAR is 128x128, works out to several kilometers, and will be on the OSIRIS-Rex project to scoop some stuff up from an asteroid and return it to Earth - it's pretty wild. We are developing a system for topology mapping like this specifically. Check the mission out: http://www.asteroidmission.org/ http://www.asteroidmission.org/ and the company! http://www.advancedscientificconcepts.com/ http://www.advancedscientificconcepts.com/ If anybody is interested, send me a message.
fsaneq2 10y ago
Awesome, is there any data like this for SF / bay area?
- andrewgodwin 10y ago
  There is, actually - the US has a (slightly worse) government data repository, but there's several LIDAR sets of the Bay Area, mostly from coastal surveys.
- bdon 10y ago
  Yes, from the SF city open data portal: https://data.sfgov.org/Geographic-Locations-and-Boundaries/Building-Footprints-Zipped-Shapefile-Format-/jezr-5bxm https://data.sfgov.org/Geographic-Locations-and-Boundaries/B...? We're working on importing this data into OpenStreetMap: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Building_Height_Import https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Building_H...
dharma1 10y ago
That's really cool. Wish it was printed in colour :) If LIDAR data isn't available, you can do pretty detailed 3D mapping with a regular camera and UAV, using photogrammetry/structure from motion. A Phantom or almost anything that flies with a reasonable camera will do. Of course the better camera you use, the better the results. Flight restrictions over populated areas apply, check your local legislation :) commercial solutions: https://pix4d.com/ https://pix4d.com/, http://www.agisoft.com/ http://www.agisoft.com/, http://www.dronedeploy.com http://www.dronedeploy.com open source: https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/OpenDroneMap https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/OpenDroneMap
- jofer 10y ago
  Color 3D printing is pretty pricey still. For something of that scale you'd be looking at several thousand dollars, even breaking it down into small individual pieces.
  - stereo 10y ago
    Using clever hollow boxes can bring the prices down significantly: http://www.shapeways.com/product/PCVV6V9G2/y-garn-relief http://www.shapeways.com/product/PCVV6V9G2/y-garn-relief
    - jofer 10y ago
      It's still pricey. Making it hollow only helps if it's tall. For color 3D printing, the material is gypsum powder (well, there is CMYK filament now, but I haven't looked into it much). You need considerably thicker walls, etc. Furthermore, the cost is as heavily influenced by machine space as by the amount of material used. For example, this was ~$100. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_printing/master/images/alaska_model_textured.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_... I tried uploading and pricing a "hollow box" version, but it saved less than $5. However, for this one, using a "hollow box" saved ~30%, (it's a comparable size, but much taller): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_printing/master/images/base.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_...
force_reboot 10y ago
Really cool. From the description it sounds like you just made one for yourself. I would suggest you try selling these for $500 - $2000 each. You put a lot of work into it and I think that as art these would be command some money in the market.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mayoff 10y ago
That is very cool! Have you thought about tiling along road /river edges to hide the seams?
Roritharr 10y ago
Does anyone know where to get Lidar or other 3D Data from Germany? (Especially Frankfurt?)
marcosscriven 10y ago
Really great write up, with lots of clear details of every aspect. I always lament that STL was the format 3D printing software ended up with (essentially a bag of triangles, usually in text format). Far better if slicers could take a true mesh, and not have to guess if coincident points on separate triangles actually amount to the same vertex, except of course for places where it doesn't!
sytelus 10y ago
Any idea how high airplane was flying and what LIDAR device it was using? I followed few links and ended up here but not sure if this is the one they used to collect data: http://geosurveysolutions.com/rapid-surveyor http://geosurveysolutions.com/rapid-surveyor
sytelus 10y ago
You can collect LIDAR data for your own favorite part of city by using this $250 device and a cheap drone like 3DR Solo: http://www.lightware.co.za/shop/en/drone-altimeters/51-sf11c-120-m.html http://www.lightware.co.za/shop/en/drone-altimeters/51-sf11c... The main issue you will face is permission to fly drone at 100m or so. In US there are way too many laws to do this. It looks like aircraft was flying at 200m for above data. London's tallest structure are at 300m+ so this is not doable in all areas. Also note that software like pix4d and AutoDesk 360 can construct 3D models purely from drone images or videos. I'm not sure how much better LIDAR models are compared to models from structure from motion.
marcosscriven 10y ago
One thing the author doesn't mention on 3D printing issues, is extruder retraction settings (essentially pulling back the filament from the hot end slightly before the head moves to a new path, thus limiting strings of fine filament between them)
2sk21 10y ago
One of the best uses I've seen for a 3d printer so far!
jamessb 10y ago
Cool. There was some discussion of the LIDAR data-set when it was released: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10379279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10379279
mstade 10y ago
Hey, I can see my (old) house from here!

140 points by andrewgodwin 10y ago

Printing it in a stereo lithography machine (think FormLABS) would get you the details you wanted. That said, from the photo it looks very nice on the wall.

zodPod 10y ago

Really awesome project @andrewgodwin! I'd love to do something like this for Pittsburgh as well!

Isamu 10y ago
What are the available data sets for Pgh?
- zodPod 10y ago
  That's a good question. Not sure!
  - Isamu 10y ago
    Best I could find right now: Lidar point cloud data http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pamap/lidar/index.htm#clouds http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pamap/lidar/index.htm#cl... Looks like Allegheny county was done in 2006. What is nice about the point cloud data is that they classified each point as ground, road, water, etc

michalskop 10y ago

How about printing a landscape from a map/contour lines? Do you think it is possible for example from OSM data? (That London looks totally cool.)

andrewgodwin 10y ago
As long as you can convert the data into a height field it's possible. I reckon you could do contours with interpolation.
buckhx 10y ago
In college my group used topo maps and a laser cutter to construct a map of Colorado. The burned edges had a really nice effect http://www.instructables.com/id/TwitMap-Topographical-Colorado-Twitter-Map/ http://www.instructables.com/id/TwitMap-Topographical-Colora...
maxerickson 10y ago
OSM is just vectors, there aren't a lot of limits on what the data can be used for. This was recently posted to /r/openstreetmap: https://touch-mapper.org/ https://touch-mapper.org/ I really don't have a sense of how useful such a map would be, but it's exactly a 3d extrusion of OSM data.
- saganus 10y ago
  This is very interesting! I don't really have anyone close that is visually impaired but this would be super cool to have at 3D printing events and such. Very neat idea.
dougmccune 10y ago
I'll plug an open source lib I wrote called shp2stl that converts shapefiles into 3D models suitable for printing. http://dougmccune.com/blog/2014/12/30/using-shp2stl-to-convert-maps-to-3d-models/ http://dougmccune.com/blog/2014/12/30/using-shp2stl-to-conve...
thatcherc 10y ago
It's not exactly contour lines, but I made a site [0] that creates STL files from a global digital elevation model. You can select a region of the Earth and get a 3D printable file of its terrain. Might be close to what you're looking for! [0] - http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

bjelkeman-again 10y ago

That is a really nice project. Having lived in London, and having a 3D printer I am very tempted.

6stringmerc 10y ago

Very interesting project and glad to see the documentation and results! Had me thinking this might be a fun long-term art project, where a city like this could be given color details by hand using various inks and/or paints. Just a thought inspired by the clever undertaking seen here.

Animats 10y ago

Nice. An interesting map is an exaggerated-relief map of Europe as far east as Moscow, with marks for all known battles. Over the centuries, they were mostly in the same places. It gives you a sense of how geography affects politics.

lolryan 10y ago

NYC performed a LIDAR scan of NYC in conjunction with CUNY a few years ago so that they could build a 'solar map' to help estimate how much solar capacity could be installed on a building. Anyone know where to grab the LIDAR scan data from?

evan_ 10y ago
If you can't find it, you may be able to file a FOIA request for it.
CognitiveLens 10y ago
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/1-foot-Digital-Elevation-Model-DEM-/dpc8-z3jc https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/1-foot-Digital...
- CognitiveLens 10y ago
  also https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Environment/Landcover-Raster-Data-2010-/9auy-76zt https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Environment/Landcover-Raster-D...

analognoise 10y ago

It's good to see LIDAR in the news! I work at Advanced Scientific Concepts (FPGA engineer), our flash LIDAR is 128x128, works out to several kilometers, and will be on the OSIRIS-Rex project to scoop some stuff up from an asteroid and return it to Earth - it's pretty wild. We are developing a system for topology mapping like this specifically. Check the mission out: http://www.asteroidmission.org/ http://www.asteroidmission.org/ and the company! http://www.advancedscientificconcepts.com/ http://www.advancedscientificconcepts.com/ If anybody is interested, send me a message.

fsaneq2 10y ago

Awesome, is there any data like this for SF / bay area?

andrewgodwin 10y ago
There is, actually - the US has a (slightly worse) government data repository, but there's several LIDAR sets of the Bay Area, mostly from coastal surveys.
bdon 10y ago
Yes, from the SF city open data portal: https://data.sfgov.org/Geographic-Locations-and-Boundaries/Building-Footprints-Zipped-Shapefile-Format-/jezr-5bxm https://data.sfgov.org/Geographic-Locations-and-Boundaries/B...? We're working on importing this data into OpenStreetMap: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Building_Height_Import https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Building_H...

dharma1 10y ago

That's really cool. Wish it was printed in colour :) If LIDAR data isn't available, you can do pretty detailed 3D mapping with a regular camera and UAV, using photogrammetry/structure from motion. A Phantom or almost anything that flies with a reasonable camera will do. Of course the better camera you use, the better the results. Flight restrictions over populated areas apply, check your local legislation :) commercial solutions: https://pix4d.com/ https://pix4d.com/, http://www.agisoft.com/ http://www.agisoft.com/, http://www.dronedeploy.com http://www.dronedeploy.com open source: https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/OpenDroneMap https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/OpenDroneMap

jofer 10y ago
Color 3D printing is pretty pricey still. For something of that scale you'd be looking at several thousand dollars, even breaking it down into small individual pieces.
- stereo 10y ago
  Using clever hollow boxes can bring the prices down significantly: http://www.shapeways.com/product/PCVV6V9G2/y-garn-relief http://www.shapeways.com/product/PCVV6V9G2/y-garn-relief
  - jofer 10y ago
    It's still pricey. Making it hollow only helps if it's tall. For color 3D printing, the material is gypsum powder (well, there is CMYK filament now, but I haven't looked into it much). You need considerably thicker walls, etc. Furthermore, the cost is as heavily influenced by machine space as by the amount of material used. For example, this was ~$100. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_printing/master/images/alaska_model_textured.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_... I tried uploading and pricing a "hollow box" version, but it saved less than $5. However, for this one, using a "hollow box" saved ~30%, (it's a comparable size, but much taller): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_printing/master/images/base.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joferkington/scipy2015-3d_...

force_reboot 10y ago

Really cool. From the description it sounds like you just made one for yourself. I would suggest you try selling these for $500 - $2000 each. You put a lot of work into it and I think that as art these would be command some money in the market.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mayoff 10y ago

That is very cool! Have you thought about tiling along road /river edges to hide the seams?

Roritharr 10y ago

Does anyone know where to get Lidar or other 3D Data from Germany? (Especially Frankfurt?)

marcosscriven 10y ago

Really great write up, with lots of clear details of every aspect. I always lament that STL was the format 3D printing software ended up with (essentially a bag of triangles, usually in text format). Far better if slicers could take a true mesh, and not have to guess if coincident points on separate triangles actually amount to the same vertex, except of course for places where it doesn't!

sytelus 10y ago

Any idea how high airplane was flying and what LIDAR device it was using? I followed few links and ended up here but not sure if this is the one they used to collect data: http://geosurveysolutions.com/rapid-surveyor http://geosurveysolutions.com/rapid-surveyor

sytelus 10y ago

You can collect LIDAR data for your own favorite part of city by using this $250 device and a cheap drone like 3DR Solo: http://www.lightware.co.za/shop/en/drone-altimeters/51-sf11c-120-m.html http://www.lightware.co.za/shop/en/drone-altimeters/51-sf11c... The main issue you will face is permission to fly drone at 100m or so. In US there are way too many laws to do this. It looks like aircraft was flying at 200m for above data. London's tallest structure are at 300m+ so this is not doable in all areas. Also note that software like pix4d and AutoDesk 360 can construct 3D models purely from drone images or videos. I'm not sure how much better LIDAR models are compared to models from structure from motion.

marcosscriven 10y ago

One thing the author doesn't mention on 3D printing issues, is extruder retraction settings (essentially pulling back the filament from the hot end slightly before the head moves to a new path, thus limiting strings of fine filament between them)

2sk21 10y ago

One of the best uses I've seen for a 3d printer so far!

jamessb 10y ago

Cool. There was some discussion of the LIDAR data-set when it was released: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10379279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10379279

mstade 10y ago

Hey, I can see my (old) house from here!