3D Printed Topographic Map
Introduction: 3D Printed Topographic Map
Perfect for interactive teaching, artwork to gift or keep, or even just to show off what your 3D printer can do, making a 3D printed topographic map is easy with these simple steps. You'll need a 3D printer (obviously), any laptop, and a couple of free applications downloaded. Thanks to open-source DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data, you can print the topography of anywhere in the world.
Step 1: Get Elevation Data
You can get your elevation data from anywhere, but one source I've had a lot of success with is opentopography.org. It has DEM data for the entire surface of the Earth at 30 meter resolution, as well as many places down to centimeter resolution. If you have a .edu email address, you can get large swaths of high-resolution data for free, but if you don't you can still get quality DEM data for almost anywhere.
To get data for the location you want, make an account then go to Data->Find Data Map and select a box around the location you want to print. Below the map window will appear a list of data sources. Clicking on the link in the blue box on the right of each data source will take you to its page that shows its extent on the map. Open Topography will give you every data source inside the bounding box you created, and while it may be possible to piece together different data sets, it is much easier to either choose the one with the largest area or select from one of the global data sets. The global data sets are at a lower resolution, but will cover the entire box. If you're printing a map of something similar in size to a city, you can probably get away with the lower resolution.
Once you've selected your data source, make sure the data output format is GeoTiff and give your job a title then hit submit! In a few minutes you will get an email with a link to download your data in .tif format.
Step 2: Combine and Edit Elevation Data
To clean up the data and make it easier to print, you can use an application called QGIS (download here for Mac and PC). It can edit the GeoTiff format and export in a format readable by a Fusion 360 plugin. To import your data, create a new project and add a new layer by selecting Layer->Add Layer->Add Raster Layer. In the source box, select the .tif files you downloaded from before and click Add to import them into QGIS.
If your DEM data came in multiple .tif files, you'll need to merge all the tiles of data together. You can do this by selecting Raster->Miscellaneous->Merge and selecting all of your imported layers.
If your data goes below sea level and you'd like the ocean to be flat so that you only show land, you can set the minimum elevation to 0 by selecting Properties->Symbology->Min and setting it to 0.
If you'd like to accentuate your land area to make it clear what is land and what is water, you can change all values of 0 or below to be a constant negative value. 110
This will print the topography with a ridge along the coast. To do this, select Raster->Raster Calculator, then enter ("LAYER">0) * ("LAYER") + ("LAYER<=0)*(-30). You'll need to replace "LAYER" with whichever combined layer you are working with. You can change the value -30 to any arbitrary value to get a higher or lower drop at the coast. It will set all 0 or negative values to the constant -30.
Step 3: Export Elevation Data As Image
To import into Fusion 360, you will need to export the DEM data as an image. So select Project->Import/Export->Export Map to Image and select "Draw on Canvas" to choose the extent of the export. You'll then need to draw the rectangle of data that you want to export. If you're trying to print a dimensionally accurate map, you should grab either the North/South or East/West extents here. You'll also need the minimum and maximum elevations (the two numbers under the layer name on the left bar). Hit save to save it as a png and you're good to go.
Step 4: Use Image2Surface in Fusion 360
Fusion 360 is free to download (from here) and easy to set up. Once you have it installed, you will need to download the plugin (from here) and install it using these instructions. Open the plugin by going to Tools->Add-Ins and selecting Image2Surface. Then select Choose File and select your image to import it into the plugin. You can then vary a few parameters to get your perfect topographical surface. 110