3D printed topography

12 Jan, 2020 06:55 PM

I'm new to 3D printing and want to use it for my other hobby, model railways. It's great for printing rolling stock, scenery, structures and buildings, but I'm struggling with topography (landscapes).

My layout is in rugged and mountainous country in England and I try to keep it as realistic as possible. In Britain, LIDAR data is available for the whole country down to 1 metre contours but so far I've had no luck converting Lidar files (.ASC format) to .STL, I have tried a number of software packages but without any joy.

I would like to open a new discussion group, initially to see if anyone else is doing this and can help me get started, and eventually pass on my experiences and results to others with a shared interest.

Regards, John from Yorkshire

Emil Pop

Jan 12, 2020

Hello John from Yorkshire,

Here is the midget from the shire.

7Ft tall midget, from the Shire of Bed ford.

On a planetary scale practically we are fence to fence neighbors. On a galactic scale ... we share the same living room.

I have no clue about the ASC format, but there are various sofwares that can import it I assume, and you have to try them all until you get one that can export (not save, export) in .stl

Go here:

https://reprap.org/wiki/Useful_Software_Packages

Install them one by one,see what they can import, what can they export.

Let me know, you made me curious.

matthew sanderson

Jan 12, 2020

Emil Pop Hello John from Yorkshire,Here is the midget from the shire.7Ft tall midget, from the Shire of Bed ford.On a planetary scale practically ...

You've got a foot on me!

So far I've tried 1) Mesh magic

2) Spin 3D Mesh Converter

3) Meshroom

4) Meshlab