I have a wooden topographical map made with a 3D CNC cut of the SF Bay Area hanging on my wall. It's about 18x18 inches and almost 2 inches deep out of a single piece of almost 2 inch thick piece of plywood. The part I like the most is that the layers in the plywood reveal an automatic topographical map visualization. Got it from here if curious: http://3dwoodenmap.com/
Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
31–39 of 39 posts
Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#32I'm a map junkie; I grew up in the UK, where we have the Ordnance Survey, who makes some of the best maps in the world. At school we actually got lessons in mapreading and analysis. As a result, whenever I go to another country the first thing I do is to try and find some decent maps of the area. With, you know, contours on them. It can be surprisingly hard. I was so, so glad to find this.
You may also enjoy the U.S. equivalent to the Ordnance Survey, the USGS. https://www.usgs.gov/
http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
It's an agglomeration of most maps that are available -- you can pick the area, and then see a giant list of the types of maps that cover those coordinates. From topo maps to high resolution aerial photographs, to solar irradiance, to rainfall -- all types of interesting materials.
Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#33I'm a map junkie; I grew up in the UK, where we have the Ordnance Survey, who makes some of the best maps in the world. At school we actually got lessons in mapreading and analysis. As a result, whenever I go to another country the first thing I do is to try and find some decent maps of the area. With, you know, contours on them. It can be surprisingly hard. I was so, so glad to find this.
Interested in maps from Switzerland? They are of very high quality as well: http://map.geo.admin.ch/ There are a lot of different overlays as well as older versions available. I especially recommend the 'Dufour Map' and the 'Siegfried Map' from the 19th century, the earliest official maps of the country.
It's in French, unfortunately for the Anglophone world, but they also have aerial maps dating back to the 30s under the advanced explorer.
Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#34I'm a map junkie; I grew up in the UK, where we have the Ordnance Survey, who makes some of the best maps in the world. At school we actually got lessons in mapreading and analysis. As a result, whenever I go to another country the first thing I do is to try and find some decent maps of the area. With, you know, contours on them. It can be surprisingly hard. I was so, so glad to find this.
Interested in maps from Switzerland? They are of very high quality as well: http://map.geo.admin.ch/ There are a lot of different overlays as well as older versions available. I especially recommend the 'Dufour Map' and the 'Siegfried Map' from the 19th century, the earliest official maps of the country.
Now, if only they had a mobile app...
Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#35Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#36I'm a map junkie; I grew up in the UK, where we have the Ordnance Survey, who makes some of the best maps in the world. At school we actually got lessons in mapreading and analysis. As a result, whenever I go to another country the first thing I do is to try and find some decent maps of the area. With, you know, contours on them. It can be surprisingly hard. I was so, so glad to find this.
https://mapy.cz/turisticka?x=14.1802678&y=49.9386049&z=14&so...
They have coverage of the whole Europe and an app with offline maps. They also have other map layers - Summer/Winter tourism, roadmap, physical, 19th century and one that can be printed for blind people.
Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#37Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nice. Could you 3D print the entire earth as a globe? :)
As noahnoahnoah's comment alludes to, there is kind of a problem with elevation differences on Earth being small. For example, the vertical distance from sea level to the summit of Mt. Everest is only 0.1% of the Earth's radius. If you made a globe with a 1 foot diameter, Mt. Everest should then be on about 0.2 millimeters above the surface (if you choose to represent sea level as the surface). Edit: this problem is…
Re: Printable 1:24000 topographic maps for the entire US
#39For some reason, I read the title as being 3D printable maps for the entire US. That'll eventually come, I guess.
There are a couple people who make 3D printed full color maps on Shapeways. They are actually pretty cool: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/tinymtn http://www.shapeways.com/shops/smartmaps