3D Printing a 3D Map

Methods:

1. Pay for a model pre-made by someone else. Micropolitan is the most well known one.

   1. https://thangs.com/designer/Micropolitan

2. Find a free model.

3. Make it yourself.

DIY Methods:

1. Map2Model, a free website that pulls from OpenStreetMaps, including their 3D models.

   1. https://map2model.com/

2. CAD Mapper is another option, but it doesn't give 3D buildings any more detailed than the ones you get from OSM.

3. Generating from LIDAR Data pulled from the USGS website.

   1. QGIS + LASTools method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NQ3jUuIvUk

   2. ArcGIS Pro (Paid) method: https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/l0nnsa/printed_a_7_mile2_section_of_chicago_using_lidar/

4. Blosm - Blender add-on. Pulls from OpenStreetmaps, Google, and other options. Most notably, it can pull from Google Maps 3D data, which has very high resolution mesh for buildings and trees, but with API limits if you aren't subscribed/paying. 1000 3D tiles free each month.

   1. https://github.com/vvoovv/blosm

   2. https://github.com/vvoovv/blosm/wiki/Import-of-Google-3D-Cities

One of the issues with using Blosm, however, is that you need to be proficient in Blender basics in order to take the resulting geometry and make it manifold and 3D printable. The buildings all import with empty bottoms, and lots of the layers appear to import as surfaces that can intersect with each other. It was confusing, and I gave up.

BTW, if you try it and you have issues with the Blender viewport and a grey thing clipping your view, you need to go to the sidebar, go to View, and change the camera clipping distance from 1000 to like 10k or more.

Conclusion

Purchasing a model is the easiest and fastest way to get buildings with nice geometry details in them instead of basic blocks. Doing it by hand using LIDAR data or Blosm + Google Maps API is labor intensive and only slightly free.

The best free option is to use Map2Model. I'm generating a map for a college campus that has open source high resolution models of the campus buildings available. After generating the mesh, Map2Model actually lets you deselect buildings from your mesh import, so I did that, and just added, rotated, and scaled all the buildings by hand in the slicer software. Hacky, but it works.