TouchTerrain - a simple way to create 3D-printable Terrain models
(@Joseph Kerski suggested that I bring our academic, open-source TouchTerrain project to the attention of the ESRI Education community at large. This is NOT a sales pitch!)
TouchTerrain
TouchTerrain is a web application (and a Python GIS framework) for creating 3D model files, that can be 3D printed to create physical, touchable 3D terrain model. Many universities and schools now have 3D printing capabilities, and we firmly believe that there is potential for using 3D-printed terrain models in many different educational scenarios. Our free TouchTerrain web app makes it easy to search for a place (e.g., the Grand Canyon), select a print area (red box) …
… and to download a 3D model (STL) file that can be 3D printed, either by your school’s 3D printer or by an online 3D print service. Here’s a 3D preview of the terrain in this area of the Grand Canyon. (A zip of this STL is attached ...)
Despite the applications offering many different options, we aim to minimize the need for any kind of GIS or 3D printing expertise and to make the process as user-friendly as possible. The web application now serves approximately 3,000 active users per month and is used for a wide variety of applications, including education (see our recent paper for a detailed usage analysis).
Educational use
In the Geology department at Iowa State University, we’ve deployed 3D-printed terrain models to help our novice geology students to learn how to work with 2D contour maps. As part of our geology summer field camp, we support student geologic mapping by having them draw their interpretations directly on 3D-printed terrain models.
However, we imagine that there are many other ways that 3D-printed terrain models could be used to support teaching in terrain/landscape related topics, either in a K-12 or university setting. Possible topics could come from environmental science, geography, engineering, … maybe even history (e.g., Hannibal’s path crossing the Alps).
If any educators have an idea for potentially using 3D-printed terrain models as part of their teaching, please contact us – we would be more than happy to lend our expertise to support such efforts!
(Note: Although we have some in-house 3D printing capabilities at our University, we’re not a commercial 3D print service. We might be able to initially help out with a few 3D printed models to get you started, but you will have to eventually utilize your own 3D printing capabilities …)
Contacts:
- Chris Harding, Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Iowa State University, charding@iastate.edu
- Franek Hasiuk, Kansas Geological Survey, franek@ku.edu
For more info, please visit our ESRI Story Map!
More Details on the Web application
- Help “bubbles” (question marks) give context for each option of the web app. Some link to a video guide.
- Print area box can be defined interactively or by defining its corner coordinates
- Or: Upload a Google Earth kmz or kml file with a polygon to define an arbitrarily shaped outline instead.
- The physical size of the desired model can be set to accommodate a specific 3D printer’s build plate extent.
- Models can automatically be split into multiple tiles. Tiles are printed separately and assembled into larger models.
- Automatic z-scaling: Set the desired vertical height of the 3D print will automatically calculate a suitable z-scale (elevation exaggeration) factor.
- Manual (expert) settings can be used to tweak many settings. For example, elevations less than 0 can be artificially lowered to better bring out shorelines.
- Provides an in-browser 3D preview of the processed terrain model, to quickly verify it before downloading it.
But wait, there’s more – TouchTerrain Stand-alone (desktop) mode:
For power-users, we offer a stand-alone version of Touchterrain (github) that offers more direct control and is run via Python (.py or jupyter notebooks). The easiest way is to run it as a jupyter notebook via our docker container.
- Process DEM data from a geotiff (e.g. derived from Lidar Data via ArcGIS)
- No limitation (other than the PC hardware) on the size of the models that can be created.
- Can drape path line data from GPX files over the terrain.
- Can be integrated into other Python GIS projects.