Original image of a 3D print I made of Fuji-san using the Terrain2STL Tool, and that was originally posted as a story on Instagram and after as a thread in Twitter.
My greetings, Popular STEM Community!
This is my first time posting here, so any and all feedback is welcome :)
This post is about an incredible resource for terrain visualization: the Terrain2STL tool! Transform any map in its database into a detailed three-dimensional topographic model, ready for 3D printing. You can check out how Mount Fuji comes to life in the process!
How to Use Terrain2STL
Step 1: Locating Your Area
Visit the official site at jthatch.com/Terrain2STL. Locate the area you want to model either by dragging the virtual map or using latitude and longitude. Utilize the "Center to View" feature to align your view with the chosen coordinates.
Step 2: Model Details
Use the options in "Model Details" to define the width and height of the red rectangle, marked as "Box Width" and "Box Height". The "Box Scaling Factor" and "Box Rotation" adjust the rectangle's proportion and rotation, respectively.
🤓 It's interesting to note that these measurements are in degrees, as we are dealing with partitions of the Earth's latitude and longitude. If the Earth were flat, we'd use a different measurement system, but we can all agree that that's not the case, right?
Step 3: Vertical Scaling
The "Vertical Scaling" option under "Model Details" sets the vertical scale of the model: the higher the value, the more exaggerated the model's upward distortion. The images show the first model at real vertical scale, the second at 2x, the third at 3x, and the fourth at 4x.
Step 4: Additional Options
Two final options remain: "Water Drop" alters the water level in the model in mm, creating possibilities like in the photo below, where water is added along the Nile River's path; "Base Height" sets the size of the base under the terrain in millimeters.
Step 5: Generating and Downloading the Model
After setting all your desired options, click on "Generate Model". Once ready, a "Download" option will appear to download the STL file, suitable for most 3D printing software. 🌏
Final Thoughts
What do you think of the tool? Do you have any ideas for using the models?
Contact me if you need help with any projects! ✨
All images used in the post are my own.
If you use the site and like it, why not help the creator keep it running?
Consider it here: https://jthatch.com/support.html
Thanks for reading!
This is my original content, firstly posted on my Twitter account on November 28, 2023.
Thread available here: https://twitter.com/tutumassola/status/1729658144970739755
Interesting, always in these models, the problem is precision, how much is real, but some very close approximations can be made to be used.
greetings and welcome!
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Greetings! Indeed, the precision is a really complex issue, since the 3D Models from Google Earth are only approximations of the real terrain relief. Thanks for your insight and welcome :)
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Hi, and welcome to the community. I don't have any 3D printing software to try it out, but I was able to find a location, generate a model and download it easily. Looks like a fascinating tool!
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Greetings, and thanks for the welcome and the comment! I hope I am able to share some more interesting knowledge about my experiences with Digital Fabrication tools of all sorts, and maybe some maths sometime in the future, since I noticed you'rea fellow mathematician...! I just finished my Bachelor's Degree last year, and after more years then I expected of intense stressful and difficult situations, it is finally over, and I just feel like I need a healthy break, you know? But I'm really happy that you could easily use the tool and found it interesting as well. I got interested in reading you're Programming Diaries, and I'll do it soon when we get to the weekend! Good friday, and nice to digitally meet you :)
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Congratulations on finishing your degree, and enjoy your well-earned break. It's been a while since I finished mine, but I remember how demanding the coursework was.... and it took me more years than expected, too.
I hope the programming diary articles live up to your expectations. I see that you have a background in computational mathematics, so maybe you can think about contributing to the ecosystem here with code as well as blogging. If you're interested in that, I might suggest following the accounts for @moecki, @steemchiller, @michelangelo3, and @the-gorilla as a starting point. Also, you might want to join the Steem Dev community.
Thanks again for your contributions in this community!
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Thank you too again for the kind words and great suggestion of accounts! I'm hoping to have some spare time sometime during this week to really learn more about the projects in Steem Dev and about how they really function from the inside! If it is not demanding too much more of your time, I'd love to have your recommendation of good posts that explain the tools and/or github repositories of them! I admit that I've always been interested in understanding how the connection to the STEEM Blockchain works applied to real applications, but never really got to doing it. Hope you have a nice week! Cheers :)
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Sorry for the delay replying.
Steemit's github repo is here, and the API documentation is here. The API doc also contains tutorials for getting started in Python, Javascript, or Ruby... although they're getting dated at this point. A lot of the development activity went away after a controversial fork back in 2020, so we really still need to rebuild much of the ecosystem. It's a good time to get in at the ground floor, but it can also be challenging. Most of the interaction uses JSON, so you don't really need much specialized blockchain knowledge to work at the app layer.
As you can tell from my programming diaries posts, I'm far from expert, but glad to answer any question I can help with. I'll see if I can find track down some other articles that have been helpful. Maybe @moecki or @steemchiller can suggest resources, too.
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Upvoted. Thank You for sending some of your rewards to @null. It will make Steem stronger.
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