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Terrain STL files of individual US states? (self.3dprinting)

submitted 2 years ago by ForynGilnith to c/[email protected]

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Does anyone know of a good resource to download or generate terrain / elevation STL models that are bound to the shape of US states?

I came across this posting but the files are pretty low resolution and look pretty bad at the size I want to print.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

If you can get state boundary image data coincident with height map data (such as by taking two screenshots on the USGS website, one with the heightmap data opaque and with it translucent, without panning or zooming between), you could use a normal image editor (eg: GIMP) to mask the height map data so that it's zero (black) outside the state boundary and at least slightly gray inside the state boundary. With OpenSCAD's surface, this would give you a rectangle that's flat outside the state and at some minimum height inside the state. You could then use one difference or intersection to cut across the model by height, trimming off the flat rectangular base.

(I.e., doing the trimming the image seems much easier than trimming an STL, & would totally work.)

[–] ForynGilnith 1 points 2 years ago

Ah interesting - that makes sense. I didn't think to treat it like an image mask like that. Thanks!