5 ms·

For some reason, I read the title as being 3D printable maps for the entire US. That'll eventually come, I guess.

patrickg_zill 10y ago
There is no reason you can't make a 3d map, by tracing the contour lines...
dagw 10y ago
You can get low resolution digital elevation models over the US from the USGS or NASA. From there you can triangulate and generate an stl file fairly easily.
noahnoahnoah 10y ago
I actually sort of did this (but I cut them w/ a CNC router rather than 3D printing them). https://imgur.com/a/fMy19 https://imgur.com/a/fMy19 is the finished product; http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1524543 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1524543 are the files I generated and used. They aren't truly accurate maps -- they do have the elevation exaggerated to be more visually interesting, but it's consistently scaled. Some people have gone on to print them w/ 3d printers (rumor is they're on the wall at Makerbot now).
dharma1 10y ago
Here you go http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/
thatcherc 10y ago
Already has! I made Terrain2STL [0] a couple years ago to do just that. It converts STRM topo data to the STL format. [0] - http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/
- dharma1 10y ago
  Nice. Could you 3D print the entire earth as a globe? :)
  - schoen 10y ago
    As noahnoahnoah's comment alludes to, there is kind of a problem with elevation differences on Earth being small. For example, the vertical distance from sea level to the summit of Mt. Everest is only 0.1% of the Earth's radius. If you made a globe with a 1 foot diameter, Mt. Everest should then be on about 0.2 millimeters above the surface (if you choose to represent sea level as the surface). Edit: this problem is less dramatic if you make either models either of local regions, or extremely large models (because relative to the size of a region like the Bay Area, the highest elevations in the region are fairly high).
    - dharma1 10y ago
      You are absolutely right, it hit me as well after posting the questing. The elevations would have to be vastly exaggerated for a globe
bjterry 10y ago
There are a couple people who make 3D printed full color maps on Shapeways. They are actually pretty cool: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinymtn http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinymtn http://www.shapeways.com/shops/smartmaps http://www.shapeways.com/shops/smartmaps
- mstock 10y ago
  Thanks for the hat tip! TinyMtn is my fun hobby, and I've been making high-resolution 3D printed maps from USGS and SRTM1 data for over three years now. I'm just getting into the extensive LiDAR data now, too. The process is: download the highest-resolution data I cna find from USGS's National Map Viewer, process with GDAL, convert to a triangle mesh (custom tools), and then upload to Shapeways or convert to GCode for my XCarve. Some of these prints, along with CNC models of Meteor Crater, Telluride, Mt Fuji, Mt Hood, and Crater Lake are on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TinyMtn https://www.etsy.com/shop/TinyMtn

There is no reason you can't make a 3d map, by tracing the contour lines...

dagw 10y ago

You can get low resolution digital elevation models over the US from the USGS or NASA. From there you can triangulate and generate an stl file fairly easily.

noahnoahnoah 10y ago

I actually sort of did this (but I cut them w/ a CNC router rather than 3D printing them). https://imgur.com/a/fMy19 https://imgur.com/a/fMy19 is the finished product; http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1524543 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1524543 are the files I generated and used. They aren't truly accurate maps -- they do have the elevation exaggerated to be more visually interesting, but it's consistently scaled. Some people have gone on to print them w/ 3d printers (rumor is they're on the wall at Makerbot now).

dharma1 10y ago

Here you go http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

thatcherc 10y ago

Already has! I made Terrain2STL [0] a couple years ago to do just that. It converts STRM topo data to the STL format. [0] - http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/ http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

dharma1 10y ago
Nice. Could you 3D print the entire earth as a globe? :)
- schoen 10y ago
  As noahnoahnoah's comment alludes to, there is kind of a problem with elevation differences on Earth being small. For example, the vertical distance from sea level to the summit of Mt. Everest is only 0.1% of the Earth's radius. If you made a globe with a 1 foot diameter, Mt. Everest should then be on about 0.2 millimeters above the surface (if you choose to represent sea level as the surface). Edit: this problem is less dramatic if you make either models either of local regions, or extremely large models (because relative to the size of a region like the Bay Area, the highest elevations in the region are fairly high).
  - dharma1 10y ago
    You are absolutely right, it hit me as well after posting the questing. The elevations would have to be vastly exaggerated for a globe

bjterry 10y ago

There are a couple people who make 3D printed full color maps on Shapeways. They are actually pretty cool: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinymtn http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinymtn http://www.shapeways.com/shops/smartmaps http://www.shapeways.com/shops/smartmaps

mstock 10y ago
Thanks for the hat tip! TinyMtn is my fun hobby, and I've been making high-resolution 3D printed maps from USGS and SRTM1 data for over three years now. I'm just getting into the extensive LiDAR data now, too. The process is: download the highest-resolution data I cna find from USGS's National Map Viewer, process with GDAL, convert to a triangle mesh (custom tools), and then upload to Shapeways or convert to GCode for my XCarve. Some of these prints, along with CNC models of Meteor Crater, Telluride, Mt Fuji, Mt Hood, and Crater Lake are on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TinyMtn https://www.etsy.com/shop/TinyMtn