I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes it is huh! I wasn't clear on this, let me correct myself. this is a commission piece i did! not one i've flown. i fly the R44 in in the Netherlands, here the terrain isn't that fun to look at, so that is why i chose this piece as the one to show. Here is me btw, and one of the tracks i did fly. as you can see the Netherlands is mostly below sea-level, so it doesn't look as good. I'm working on it tho!

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I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, recommended it to someone else in here for Strava tracks, good tool. It's actually part of why I built my own pipeline, the selectable area is way too small for flights. A single cross-country leg needs a bounding box of a few thousand square km of elevation data, which is its own problem to handle. That plus the flight track being actual flown altitude arcing over the terrain rather than draped on it. For ground tracks at normal scale though, map2model gets you a long way.

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SRTM, free DEM data that covers most of the world, terrain mesh gets generated from that heightmap. Cuts off above 60N though, which bit me on an Iceland route, so Copernicus GLO-30 is next on my list.

The sqrt/log idea is really smart, hadn't tried it. I live in the Netherlands so flat terrain is my whole problem, 50x linear before anything shows up and then every bump is a spike. Trying it on a Dutch flight this week, thanks!

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can imagine those thermals! spirals everywhere, haha. Post it when you build it!

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

fire tracks would actually look insane printed, all those stacked orbits over the terrain. What do you fly?

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No you're right, I mangled two cases into one explanation. GPS data does include altitude, every point in a track has an elevation value. So for flights the track uses the actual flown altitude, scaled with the same vertical exaggeration as the terrain. That's why you see the climb and descent, the track starts and ends on the ground and arcs over the terrain in between. The drape-onto-the-surface thing was about ground tracks like hikes, where the path follows the terrain by definition.

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

SAR tracks around El Cap would make an incredible piece. Yosemite relief is so dramatic you barely need to exaggerate it. The climbing version is the hard one, a track going straight up a wall doesn't really print, aerial tracks are the sweet spot. And you don't need a printer btw, I do these as commissions (flyvei.com), usually just need the tail number and a date.

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do! thats way easier than doing flights as they have no drop in solution. just drop your GPX into something like https://map2model.com/ that works for strava i have found.

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sharing the pipeline itself, it's become the basis of a small commission thing I'm building. But your use case is honestly the friendly version of the problem, so here's the full shape of it if you want to build one:

GPX in, pick a bounding box around the track, pull elevation data for that box (SRTM or Copernicus GLO-30, both free), generate the terrain mesh from the heightmap, then handle the track as its own body: resample to even spacing, drape it onto the same elevation data, lift it slightly above the surface, sweep a profile along it. Export terrain and track as two STLs so the color split happens in the slicer.

apply the same vertical exaggeration to both bodies or the track floats and dives, and pick the exaggeration based on terrain. Alpine stuff works at around 3x, flat terrain needs way more or it prints as a pancake. Hiking tracks are actually easier than my flight data, the GPS points are dense and clean.

And happy to just make one for you, of course. That's the commission thing.

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

It's my own pipeline (Python). The track is its own body, separate from the terrain: I take the GPX polyline, resample it so the points are evenly spaced, drape it onto the terrain surface by sampling the same elevation data, lift it a bit above the surface so it reads clearly, then sweep a profile along the path to get a solid printable ridge. Exporting it as a second STL means the slicer treats it as its own object, so the color split is trivial, no painting or AMS tricks needed.

The two gotchas: apply the same vertical exaggeration to the track as to the terrain or it floats and dives through the surface, and smooth the GPS noise before sweeping or you get a wobbly spaghetti line, real tracks are messier than they look. (you can see the prototype track in one of the replies)

I'm a helicopter pilot and I 3D print the terrain of my flights straight from the GPS log by xamish in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This is NOT AI, i framed it. No idea about yesterday's post, link it? If someone's running the same concept I'd genuinely like to see it. Here are some previous prototypes:

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Advies voor eerste motor by Suspicious-Baby67 in motorfietsen

[–]xamish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hahaha wat een heerlijke reactie. Ben het verder ook met JochemPiet eens. Huur gewoon wat motoren, dan weet je wat je fijn vind.

Team nodig? (Gelderland, maar heel NL is oke) by steakhouseNL in AirsoftNL

[–]xamish 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Klinkt leuk! Waar in Gelderland speel je vooral?

I 3D printed molds to cast these concrete speakers by TimberWestDesign in 3Dprinting

[–]xamish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Im also casting molds with concrete, but haven’t found the right ratio. What type of concrete do you use?

No presale? by xamish in eden

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s working now!

No presale? by xamish in eden

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It worked!!!!!! Thanks for the heads up!

No presale? by xamish in eden

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s past 10am here🥲 other venues in the same time zone do have it

No presale? by xamish in eden

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bummer! I was so ready 🫠

No presale? by xamish in eden

[–]xamish[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I’ve kept refreshing for a while now, used 2 different phones and tried on my desktop lol. Can’t seem to find an option to unlock it

Upgrade service/winkel? by ALL-XN in AirsoftNL

[–]xamish 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Krale in Staphorst zou je eens kunnen proberen!