Anyone here able to make Topographical maps for 3D printing? I found this, www.matterhackers.com/news/how-to-3d-print-a-map-of-anywhere-in-the-world But I don't like the idea of downloading 3 different programs and a few other support files just for one map. To much garbage on my computer as it is. Was wondering if anyone has a better way or maybe already has this stuff installed.
Some things are meant to be closed. Your mind isn't one of them.
I looked into doing exactly that when I made the topographic cutoff of the lake my parents live on. I went down the same path you're looking at and didn't get anywhere. Part of the issue I ran into was the limited depth of the lake and lack of topographic info available at fine gradations that I needed. I ended up tracing over each line of a map that I found using Inkscape and lots of time.
Hardware eventually fails. Software eventually works.
It works with marginal success. My issue is that the area I want to print is covered in trees so not much contrast between higher land and lower land. I searched all over for grey scale topographical maps but no luck. A normal Topo doesn't work.
Some things are meant to be closed. Your mind isn't one of them.