3D printing – The Map Room

3D-Printed Lithophane Globe Ornament

Jonathan Crowe — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:12:47 +0000

Every year, for the past few years, John Nelson has released a DIY globe ornament; this year he eschews papercraft and teamed up with Ruben Bruijning to produce a 3D-printed lithophane globe: “A lithophane is a backlit 3D object that glows brighter or dimmer depending on how thick the material is. Areas where the ornament is thin, the light more readily shines through, so it appears light. Thicker areas let less light through, so they appear darker. It’s a 3D negative.” Obviously needs a light put in it (to say nothing of a 3D printer).

Previously: Orthographic Papercraft Ornament; This Year’s Papercraft Globe Ornament; John Nelson’s Cassini Globe Ornament; John Nelson’s Dymaxion Globe Ornaments; DIY Map Ornaments.

3D Printed Maps for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Jonathan Crowe — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 16:01:14 +0000

Rutgers University: “Using a high-tech 3-D printer, a Rutgers undergraduate and his professor created sophisticated braille maps to help blind and visually impaired people navigate a local training center.” [via]

Here’s a short video about the project from Rutgers:

Ian’s 3D Relief Maps

Jonathan Crowe — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 01:08:16 +0000

Planetary globes aren’t the only map-related 3D-printed items being sold on Shapeways; Ian Grasshoff writes to say that he’s flogging 3D relief maps there as well. “I have made it a focus to only use Open Data (LiDAR where available) and Open Source GIS/modeling software,” he writes. “I think the results speak for themselves.”

3D Printed Planetary Globes

Jonathan Crowe — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 16:50:42 +0000

On Shapeways, a site where users can upload and sell 3D-printed items, George Ioannidis is selling globes of the planets and moons of our solar system. There are individual globes, globes that take into account moons’ irregular topography (e.g. Phobos and Diemos, Iapetus), all in different sizes (none of which are very big: 50 to 200 mm), and collections where each planet and moon is to scale (as seen above, this can be somewhat unwieldy, but it’s neat for Jupiter’s Galilean moons, for example). I’m unreasonably enthusiastic about this sort of thing. [via]

Previously: Globes of the Solar System.