Roy (aka “The SmithBot”) presents us with a hands-on information to turning your neighborhood, metropolis, state, or favourite Nationwide Park right into a 3D printable topographic map.
Posted on December 18, 2015
by
Roy Smith – Visitor Contributor
A number of months in the past my good friend Barney stated, “Are you able to 3D print Thousand Palms Canyon?”
I knew what he meant: all of the hills and gulleys and panorama options we’re accustomed to. “No,” I stated. “That’s unimaginable.” However the thought saved bugging me. Why not? So I did what any of you’ll do in the course of a sleepless evening: I went on-line. Huh! Not unimaginable, however possibly a bit of bit tough. Under are the step-by-step directions to create a 3D topographic map.
Writer’s Observe: I’m utilizing Photoshop and 3DS Max on a PC to edit information and export them to my MakerBot Replicator 2, so this process is likely to be completely different for you in the event you’re utilizing different software program. I guess it will likely be comparable sufficient for this information to be helpful, although.
Replace (Might 2016): There was a chunk of software program developed to help within the STL map producing instrument. The hyperlink for the free STL creator is right here: http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/. The unique article is under and produces the next decision STL, if that’s wanted.
1. Obtain and set up Google Earth.
2. Obtain and set up MicroDEM – a free utility obtainable by the U.S. Naval Academy web site. Set up entails two steps – obtain and run the installer first, then substitute the executable with the most recent model (obtainable as a separate obtain).
3. Obtain and set up the srtm4.1 plugin for Google Earth (Observe: clicking on this hyperlink might routinely obtain the srtm4.1 plugin, relying in your browser).
A. Deciding on a topographic area in Google Earth
4. In Google Earth, the SRTM4.1 will seem below “My Locations” within the navigation on the left. Click on on the small “Elevation” sq., and a grid of bins ought to seem on the globe picture (Picture “A”);
5. Click on on one of many bins that features topography you need to print;
B. Topographic knowledge – obtain choices
6. A window will seem (You would possibly must scroll down). Click on on the hyperlink as in Picture “B”;
C. Topographic knowledge – the direct obtain url
7. The auto-download in all probability gained’t work, so copy the url as prompt, and paste it into your browser, as proven in Picture “C.” This obtain might take a couple of minutes;
8. Unzip the downloaded archive. The one file you want is the .asc file. Put it someplace yow will discover it simply. Toss the remainder;
9. It is advisable to use MicroDEM to interpret the altitude knowledge. (Don’t attempt utilizing any of the opposite “useful” instruments on the Web to open this sort of file – a few of them are nasty viruses!);
10. In MicroDEM, go to File>Open>Open DEM and find your file;
D. Utilizing MicroDEM to preview your topographic knowledge
11. Right here’s the tough half: You in all probability do not know what you’re taking a look at. No highways, no names of cities, no identifiers of any variety! So that you’ll must reference back-and-forth with another map to slender down the world you need to print. When you determine which a part of the map you need to zoom in on, use the “Subset & zoom” instrument (dotted border) from higher left to decrease proper to zoom in (Picture “D”);
12. Proper-click on the map and select “Legends/marginalia,” and ensure not one of the bins is chosen (do not forget to take away the gridlines);
E. Exporting topographic knowledge in greyscale
13. Proper-click once more, choose Show parameter>Elevation>Grey scale. That is the picture you’ll use in your 3D program to create a displacement map as a way to print your topographical 3D mannequin (Picture “E”);
14. Choose File>Save picture, and select no matter picture format works finest in your 3D program (I exploit jpeg);
F. Checking the picture dimension in Photoshop
15. Stop out of MicroDEM and open Photoshop or no matter image-editing program you utilize. Open the file you simply saved. Test to find out picture dimension, and jot it down. Mine occurred to be 860×650 pixels. Which means, once I create a aircraft object in 3DS Max it will likely be, like, 8.6in x 6.5in or 860mm x 650mm or no matter models you like (Picture “F”). Shut the file;
Editor’s Observe: If you do not have Photoshop there are many different choices for checking the size of a picture. In Home windows Explorer single-clicking an image file will show the size within the information panel on the backside of the window.
G. Making a aircraft in 3D Studio Max
16. Open your 3D program, create a aircraft with comparable dimensions (You would possibly want to change width for size), and provides that aircraft LOTS of segments, like, 430×325. I divided dimensions in half (Picture “G”);
H. Making a displacement map out of your grayscale elevation picture
17. In 3DS Max (or no matter you’re utilizing), choose the aircraft, go to the Modifier Checklist, scroll right down to “Displace,” and add your grayscale map to create the terrain you need. Modify “power” to magnify the peak of the mountains nonetheless you like. Drawback is, a aircraft has solely two dimensions, so you possibly can’t print it with a 3D printer irrespective of what number of mountains it has (Picture “H”);
Editor’s Observe: If you do not have entry to 3D Studio Max, concern not! Utilizing Roy’s directions as a basic guideline we accomplished these steps with Blender (a free 3D enhancing instrument).
J. Changing your aircraft right into a 3D printable object
18. Convert the aircraft to an Editable Poly, choose solely the outermost vertices (“choose border” in 3DS Max), and drag all of them down fairly far on the Z axis until they’re away from every little thing else. Then “Make Planar” on “Z,” which ought to line up all of the vertices you chose to have equal “Z” values. With that border nonetheless chosen, click on on “Cap.” That completes a 3D printable object (Picture “J”);
19. Transfer the underside “cap” up close to to the bottom level of your topography, however not too shut, otherwise you danger breaking your printed map while you pry it off your construct floor on the finish of this course of;
20. Choose your topo map object and export it as a StereoLitho (STL) file;
Okay. Topographic map imported into MakerWare
21. Open MakerWare, MatterControl, or no matter you’re utilizing to drive your printer, and add your STL object, scaling it to suit your print mattress comfortably (Picture “Okay”);
L. The ultimate product – a 3D printed topographic map
22. Print it! This can take a very long time to print. My map took nearly 4 hours, however the element is wonderful. This printed object is barely about 4.75in x 3.5in (Picture “L”).
This will appear to be a protracted, troublesome course of, however it’s truly fairly easy in the event you observe each step to the letter. Consider me: It will likely be so much simpler so that you can undergo these steps than it was for me to determine them out.
When you discover any errors on this article, please level them out, and I’ll do my finest to repair them.
Good printing!
Roy Smith
The Smithbot
(Replace 2019)
At MatterHackers, we’re all the time searching for enjoyable and fascinating new initiatives that we will incorporate 3D printing and digital fabrication into. I had remembered seeing this older MatterHackers article by Roy Smith, however it was made clear that this technique wouldn’t permit for the options that make areas recognizable: buildings! With that, I got down to devise and doc a course of.
Technique 1: 3D Map, no Topography
I used to be capable of finding a few completely different strategies, each free and paid for that labored okay, however the most effective I may discover for my functions was utilizing a sequence of various packages to transform knowledge from Google Maps. I wished to start out off with one thing that was a recognizable panorama or held some significance for MatterHackers, so I’ll use New York Metropolis, particularly the world across the Empire State Constructing and a few portion of Downtown Los Angeles.
- Go to opensteetmap.org and discover the situation that you just need to 3D print. This can make the most of the info inside Google Maps to create 3D fashions of the world seen within the viewport.
- Click on Export to export a .osm file.
- Obtain and set up OSM2World from osm2world.org
- As soon as put in, open OSM2World and import the map.osm file you exported already. After a minute or so, you must see a 3D mannequin of your metropolis.
- From OSM2World, you possibly can export an Obj file, which some slicers can’t work together with and can want conversion. At this level you wouldn’t need to print it both; this mannequin will want fairly a little bit of cleanup.
- Open up Netfabb and import the Obj file. It is advisable to delete a few of the artifacts from the surroundings that couldn’t be translated correctly and make the completed mesh printable.
- Utilizing the aircraft reduce sliders, take away the options that stretch previous the a part of your metropolis that you just need to maintain, just like the highways and jagged edges the place the map ends.
- Choose town part that you just need to maintain and open up the restore instrument
- Use the floor choice instrument to pick the land under all of the buildings
- Click on the “Extrude Surfaces” instrument and ensure the “3D-Extrude” tab is chosen and “Easy” and “Thickening” choices are chosen as effectively.
- Change “Shift” to 100mm (optimistic or destructive, whichever manner extrudes it away from the buildings). Then click on apply.
- Now that the land has thickness, click on “Run Restore Script” and “Prolonged Restore.” Netfabb will try to merge all of the shells into one mannequin, quite than one with many particular person elements.
- When you’re fortunate, you’ve got one shell and every little thing seems to be proper, nonetheless, odds are your mannequin wants a bit of extra repairing.
- Click on the left aspect of the field subsequent to the Z Lower Airplane slider, this may conceal something under the reduce aircraft.
- Take a look at the mannequin from the underside and test to see in the event you can see any blue triangles. This is able to imply you’ve got buildings that aren’t hooked up but, or your constructing has overhangs on it that want eradicating.
- Use the “Choose Shells” instrument to pick the largely completed mannequin, then right-click and conceal triangle. This can make it simpler to see the opposite shells that aren’t linked
- Manually choose the underside surfaces of every of those shells, then extrude them down far sufficient to stay into the land.
- Do one other Prolonged Restore to merge it with the remainder of the mannequin and apply the restore if all of it seems to be good (I decide to not take away the previous half in case I would like to return for restore.
- Use the Z aircraft reduce to chop off the underside of the land and make it utterly flat and in the event you want, use the extruded surfaces instrument once more to thicken the bottom).
That covers Technique 1. There’s so much that goes into it, however ultimately, you should have a reasonably detailed and actually enjoyable mannequin that you could print and modify as you want.
Technique 2: 3D Map with Topography.
The information that’s gathered by Google Maps doesn’t embrace any kind of topographical knowledge. It is aware of that there are buildings, the place they’re, the place the roads are, what number of lanes, however San Francisco’s panorama (a notoriously hilly metropolis) would look precisely the identical as Houston (one of many flattest cities within the US). Conveniently, there’s an internet site that may convert the info from Google Maps, NASA, and the US Geological Survey to create a way more correct cityscape with included topography.
- Go to CADmapper.com
- Zoom out and in, drag the corners of the choice field, and pan the viewport to vary your number of map you’d wish to obtain. The free model limits you to at least one sq. kilometer, however you possibly can choose between 1 and 100 sq. kilometers for $6 to $65.
- Export utilizing SketchUp 2015+, choose to incorporate 3D Buildings, and set false peak to twenty meters, test the field for Topography, and Street Geometry is as much as you (mesh surfaces will assist you to extrude the roads however to make them printable will take much more work to make them prepared for that).
- Click on “Create File” and CadMapper will start merging all the info it must create a workable 3D mannequin.
- When it’s accomplished, obtain the completed file and open it up utilizing SketchUp 2015 or newer.
- Underneath the “Window>Default Tray” Toolbar, be sure “Layers” is chosen so you possibly can see and choose the layers throughout the map.
- You possibly can select to maintain all of the layers, which would require extra cleanup and tuning to get proper, or you possibly can maintain the principle ones to get it printable. Buildings and Topography are the essential ones.
- When you’ve deleted the layers you don’t need, set up the STL Import & Export Extension, and export the map as an STL.
- With the exported STL, you possibly can then import this into NetFabb and start modifying the mesh utilizing the Restore instrument.
- Use the floor choice instrument to pick the land under all of the buildings
- Click on the “Extrude Surfaces” instrument and ensure the “3D-Extrude” tab is chosen and “Easy” and “Thickening” choices are chosen as effectively.
- Change “Shift” to 100mm (optimistic or destructive, whichever manner extrudes it away from the buildings). Then click on apply.
- At this level, in the event you selected to maintain the roads, you’ll must undergo by hand and restore every of them, give them thickness, and ensure there aren’t overlapping triangles; a easy Prolonged Restore isn’t going to chop it right here.
- Now that the land has thickness, click on “Run Restore Script” and “Prolonged Restore.” Netfabb will try to merge all of the shells into one mannequin, quite than one with many particular person elements.
- When you’re fortunate, you’ve got one shell and every little thing seems to be proper, nonetheless odds are your mannequin wants a bit of extra repairing.
- Click on the left aspect of the field subsequent to the Z Lower Airplane slider, this may conceal something under the reduce aircraft.
- Take a look at the mannequin from the underside and test to see in the event you can see any blue triangles. This is able to imply you’ve got buildings that aren’t hooked up but, or your constructing has overhangs on it that want eradicating.
- Do one other Prolonged Restore to merge it with the remainder of the mannequin and apply the restore if all of it seems to be good (I decide to not take away the previous half in case I would like to return for restore.
- Use the Z aircraft reduce to chop off the underside of the land and make it utterly flat and in the event you want, use the extruded surfaces instrument once more to thicken the bottom).
Technique 2 is fairly easy and may give some fascinating depths to your topographical maps and makes for nice HexTiles of a few of our favourite places!