Hardware

3D printed maps: 10 eye-catching examples

By // July 16, 2014, 4:00 AM PST // lyndseygilpin

Image 1 of 10

  • San Francisco

    This model of San Francisco took two months to make and cost around $20,000. It was primarily built to help a real estate developer showcase buildings and to help with city planning. It was presented by Autodesk earlier this year.

    Image: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

  • Geography

    This terrain map of Louisville, Kentucky was designed using the Society for Printable Geography. Simply go to the site, type in your location, and it will generate a printable geographic map using the size of the iPhone as parameters. It takes about a minute to generate, and then you can order the prints through Shapeways or Sculpteo.

    Image: Society for Printable Geography

  • Maps for the visually impaired

    HaptoRender is a company that wants to use 3D printing to create tactile maps for the blind and visually impaired. The company will use Openstreetmap data to make the maps of cities and use braille for descriptions, allowing people to have a better understanding of the lay of the land.

    Image: Shapeways

  • London subway

    This iPhone case is a map of the London subway. On Shapeways, almost any public rail system is available -- from Barcelona to Tokyo. This is available for less than $30 on Shapeways.

    Image: Chillsy/Shapeways

  • Norway

    The government of Norway teamed up with Bengler, a design firm, to make 3D printed renderings of the country's landscape. Simply go to the site, Terrafab, select the portion of Norway's beautiful landscape you want printed, and click print.

    Image: Terrafab

  • Manhattan

    This giant 3D printed model of Manhattan was made to hang in a corporate space for Vick Art Advisors, and was designed by Sparks 3D Design and Quickparts. It was printed in 28 sections, and is 24 feet long.

    Image: 3D Print Board

  • Mt. Rainier and other terrain

    This topographic map of Mount Rainier is available for purchase on Shapeways. It shows the mountain peak along with the glaciers and valleys surrounding it. There are many maps of mountains available for download or purchase on the site.

    Image: Shapeways

  • Puzzles

    This puzzle, available for about $50, can be customized to any continent. It is made from the Society for Printable Geography, which aims to raise awareness about geography through 3D printing. This Africa puzzle has the country codes on the back of the puzzles so all you need to do is look at a map if you're stumped.

    Image: Society for Printable Geography

  • Your journey

    Use Instructables, the open source instructions site for 3D printing, to print your trek, whether it's on a bike, on feet, or in a car. All you have to do is download the elevation data to print after tracking your trip with a GPS device. This one was made by a user who went to Nepal and mapped his journey.

    Image: Instructables

  • Winterfell

    This model of Winterfell was built from scratch, using screen grabs from Game of Thrones. The file is available for download on Thingiverse for free. This version was made with a MakerBot Replicator 2.

    Image: damm301/Thingiverse

San Francisco

This model of San Francisco took two months to make and cost around $20,000. It was primarily built to help a real estate developer showcase buildings and to help with city planning. It was presented by Autodesk earlier this year.

Image: Daniel Terdiman/CNET

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About Lyndsey Gilpin

Lyndsey Gilpin is a former Staff Writer for TechRepublic, covering sustainability and entrepreneurship. She's co-author of the book Follow the Geeks.