Post by dustypilot on Jan 31, 2021 19:13:13 GMT -5
I've been interested in carving Topo maps for a while. I used a simple one to teach scouts how to translate from a topo map to real terrain, but I can see other applications. But it was always a pain to assemble terrain data - until now. touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/ makes it as EASY as it can be: zoom to what you want, press the button and wait for the assembled STL (takes about a minute depending on size/complexity). In this case I decided to try the big island of Hawaii: good mountains in a fairly short field. I ended up punching the Z by 2x to give it a little more UMPH, but it only took 2 hours from start (as in opening Aspire) to putting on a coat of Danish Oil for a 12" square. I can see blowing this up to 2' square as a wall hanging or filling it in with clear epoxy. I can see tracing routes of long distance backpack trips as a remembrance...this could be way cool!
