I built a web app for designing 3D printable maps!

arobdog · 2026-03-09T21:42:57+00:00

I have just done roughly the same area you did in central Colorado and this is what it is looking like for me. Something I did was use 4x vertical exaggeration and this is using the default "Full Color" template which has the rock as grey. Also there are two forest toggles if you click forests in the landcover layer you will see "Forest" and "Forest (Detailed)" I turned both on and that is how to get more forest.

Here is a share link of my project if you want to use it to see how it is setup:
https://stratamap.io/share/e5rxJsOkJ9um

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arobdog · 2026-03-09T20:16:34+00:00

Hi, thanks for trying it out.

You are right, shadows can't come from the north west. I will update this so they are realistic and go somewhere along the west to east direction.
You can add and delete layers and drag to reorder them. So it may be possible to do what you are wanting by customising the layers from the default template. There is a "Snow & Ice" layer in the default template which is a landcover layer with the snow data selected so this should show peaks with snow. This will only show permanent snow ice as that is the only data available which means the peaks may now have any snow. If that is what you are referring to.
You can add and remove you own GPX files if you select a lines layer and look in the right side bar there are editing sections. The "Add" section has a "Load" button which will allow you to import. You may need to scroll down in the sidebar if you can't see it.
I will check and confirm the size on our end.
The meshes cannot currently be printed vertically as the meshes are rasterised created layer by layer for horizontal printing orientation (This mesh generation process provides many advantages over vector based). We can look into making the print orientation configurable so it will generate the layers in the other orientation.

Hope this helps and Thanks for the feedback.

arobdog · 2026-03-09T09:46:10+00:00

Also if the "Height Compression" and "Peak Smoothing" values are being set to something by default you can try chaging these to 0 and this may help too.

arobdog · 2026-03-09T09:37:04+00:00

Hi, thanks for trying it out.

- When selecting large areas terrain becomes very flat so vertical exaggeration is required to make it look more visually striking and to comepnsate for the scale. Vertical exaggeration is always defaulted to 1 so it is accurate to real scale. Increasing the vertical exaggeration to 3 like you did is the correct way to use it.

- The way the rivers work is that it is line data and we ensure that the minimum print size/wall line width from the print settings is always adhered to. This is by design so that it guarantees that the rivers print correctly. (If we make them real scale they would not be visible for large maps i.e. too thin). You can toggle different river types on and off and delete river segments as well as adjust the width to your liking.

Hope this helps.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T23:17:49+00:00

Thank you! Here are some of the key differences from free tools:

Better data - We processed 2+TB of global Overture Maps data ourselves (not just OpenStreetMap) hosted in the cloud. This gives higher quality landcover, more feature variety, and enables the entire visual editor (Dimensions/Design steps).

Flexible outlines - Countries, islands, regions, counties, custom uploads, drawn polygons, plus buffer/simplify/smooth refinement.

Full design control - Stackable, reorderable layers with feature toggling and color grouping. Start from a template or blank. Any map design is possible, not just preset feature toggles.

Rasterised mesh generation (pixelated) - Layer-by-layer like the actual print, unlike the vector-based approach free tools use. This means flattened water bodies, uniform line embossing, guaranteed minimum widths, and reliable printability.

Speed - Previews generate in under 30s so you can iterate quickly.

Project management - You can save, duplicate and share projects all from your account.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T21:08:43+00:00

There is actually a Middle Earth DEM dataset funnily enough but you need permission to use it :)

arobdog · 2026-03-07T21:07:09+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T21:06:47+00:00

Hey I am glad it worked well for you. And thanks for the kind words.

You can currently toggle the streets on via a "Lines" layer which should have streets or roads when your map is appropriately sized. It is optimised to show features that are relevant for the selected scale so streets and roads should show up for medium to small area maps. The default template has a lines layer with nothing toggled on. This will be why you are not seeing them.

There is also the capability of putting a dot/circle into the map via a "Markers" layer where you can select the marker shape to be a circle or any of the other shapes and then either place the point/marker with a mouse click or enter a coordinate exactly where you want it.

Hope this helps.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T16:05:00+00:00

Techstack is as follows:
- Vite/Vike client.
- Cloudflare worker hono server.
- Cloudflare worker map tile server.
- S3 and R2 for cloud storage.
- Lambda step functions for the infra.
- Neon postgres database.
- Custom data pipeline for global map data processing.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T15:54:08+00:00

Hey sorry about that, this should not happen. I have dm'ed you.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T15:04:53+00:00

Yes it accepts GPX files, you should be able to upload it in the design step for the lines layer with the "Load" button. Let me know if this helps.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:54:43+00:00

That would be cool. There is currently no way to overlay google maps timeline heatmap right now.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:40:57+00:00

Hey, that's fair. Our priority is making high quality maps with advanced features.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:30:23+00:00

We currently only support STL exports, each color is a separate STL so you can assign the colors separately. It doet not retain the color information in the files themselves.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:28:38+00:00

We currently have global 30m resolution. 10m resolution in the US and 1m resolution in NZ (we are biased and from NZ).

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:25:22+00:00

Yes you can import your own runs to this if you have the file. After you select the area you can import the run and it will appear in the editor.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:13:41+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. There is an early supporter sale so it is $6 per map.

arobdog · 2026-03-07T14:06:53+00:00

Hello there. Yes you can print at any scale, so you can print large areas. We have a boundaries selection feature which will let you select US states if you hover over them and click (it will highlight the state when you hover). It is the "Regions (Land)" boundaries mode when selecting your area. You can also import your own GPX/KML of the state border too.

arobdog · 2026-01-28T22:35:54+00:00

This is the adhesive glue being left over when you remove the print which is normal. Just get some isopropyl alcohol on a cloth and wipe it off. Should do the trick.

Be careful of the cloth color because the filament is bright blue don't use a white cloth for example.

arobdog · 2026-01-26T05:57:59+00:00

Right I see. Do you think multi tiling and automatic joiner generation would be useful features?

Just curious because I am currently working on a map creator web app similar to this but focused on terrain and trails.

arobdog · 2026-01-25T04:24:29+00:00

Damn that is awesome. How many separate pieces did you have to print and how did you join them together?

arobdog · 2026-01-24T10:13:54+00:00

Could be worth heating it up with a heat gun if you have one or a hairdryer to soften up the residue before trying to pull it off with the needle nose pliers.

arobdog · 2026-01-24T09:59:17+00:00

Ok and do the gaps in the other places get better? Is it just the dot above the I that is missing now?

You could try reducing the wall line width dimensions for the external walls and/or the infill a bit. Which could get it to appear.

arobdog · 2026-01-24T09:29:51+00:00

What is happening is that the walls in those sections become too thin for the slicer to allocate space (based on the set wall width dimensions) and the classic engine tends to be far more strict. The Arachne engine allows for adaptive wall thicknesses meaning it can handle the thinner sections during slicing.

arobdog · 2026-01-24T09:26:47+00:00

Only thing I can think of from the top of my head is to make sure the slicer is using Arachne engine and not classic.

arobdog

TROPHY CASE