3d Printing Topographical Models

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There are a variety of websites that provide the ability to create a 3d-printable (.stl) topographical model of any region you'd like. Different sites have varying levels of resolution and cover different areas of the world, below is a list of useful programs with brief descriptions of their abilities and differences.

Terrain2STL

The advantage of Terrain2STL is that it is global, meaning you can create a model of topographical features from anywhere in the world, although the resolution is not quite a high as some of the other websites.

Link: http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

Open Topography

This website includes a tutorial for printing terrain models including models using data from LIDAR systems, which is usually very high-resolution measurements.

Link: https://opentopography.org/learn/3d_printing

TouchTerrian

This website has higher resolution than Terrain2STL for topography within the United States, but also allows access to data from around the world (although with varying resolutions).

Link: https://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu/