Model Render Print

Printable 3D models of the Earth rendered from the global elevation model (GDEM) data on the shared /datasets volume — the ETOPO 2022 global relief model maintained by the model-elevation-earth project.

Status

• Status: active.
• Data source: ETOPO 2022 (land elevation + seafloor bathymetry), 15-arcsecond GeoTIFF tiles on /datasets/dataset-etopo-2022/.
• Goal: render the Earth's surface as STL tile models that load into a slicer (OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer) and print on a 3D printer.
• Live dataset and tile state: see the dashboard.

How it works

The project reads the GDEM tiles from the shared datasets volume, divides the globe into roughly equal-size tiles along lines of latitude and longitude (single round tiles at the poles), and renders each tile as a binary STL with a flat bottom that sits against the printer bed. The approach is decided in documents/05-stl-approach.md.

Printing workflow

• make build renders the tile set into dataflow.out/stl/ with manifest.json.
• make check validates every tile (watertight, flat bottom, expected bounds).
• Load one tile into your slicer; millimeters, z = 0 is the bed plane.
• Use --tiles or --region to render a subset.

Assembly plan

• Tiles are printed flat and assembled over the globe's curvature; adjacent tiles mate along chamfered walls through the globe center, so each shared edge pair lies in one common plane. A hemisphere (tiles only) can be exported as a STEP file for CAD work: python3 scripts/hemisphere_step.py.
• Superseded: the internal hub-and-strut frame (frame.html, make frame), the reinforcing-rib plan, and the interior-support plan have been dropped.

Documentation

• STL approach: documents/05-stl-approach.md
• Data source: /datasets/manifest.yml (etopo-2022)
• Records: records/