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).
• make rings renders the support lattice pieces into dataflow.out/rings/ with a per-hemisphere manifest.
• 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. make step exports the whole tile set as STEP in assembled orientation — one placed, named solid per tile, plus a file per tile — for import and editing in OnShape.
• Because the assembled globe is wider than the 220 mm bed, the internal support is printed in sections and assembled inside the tiles: three flat horizontal rings keyed into the centre socket of every tile, twelve meridian arcs keyed into the rings, and a cap stem at each pole — 16 pieces per hemisphere. `make rings` renders them into `dataflow.out/rings/`; see the ring lattice view.
• Superseded: the internal hub-and-strut frame (frame.html, make frame), the reinforcing-rib plan, and the interior-support plan have been dropped.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/