Physical Modeling of Topographic Maps by Paper-Based 3D Printer Using NSDTF-DEM Data

The purpose of the present work is to develop a simple procedure for making physical models of three-dimensional (3D) digital topographic maps by rapid prototyping (RP) using digital elevation model (DEM) data. It is also intended to reduce data loss by choosing the right tools and minimizing intermediate data translations. As a typical digital map, NSDTF-DEM can be translated into ArcInfo ASCII Grid format, so that it can be manipulated by ARCGIS to restore the elevation, and in this way any data loss associated with intermediate file transfer will be eliminated. By AccuTrans3D software DEM files can further be converted into Stereo lithography (STL) surface with intricate geometries. The STL surface is then manipulated in Materialise Magics software to obtain a solid STL part, which can be used as input files for RP to obtain a physical model. All the openly available software that used in this method runs under Microsoft Windows 7 operating systems. The RP machine applied in this procedure is paper-based 3D printer, which takes less time and costs less but produces environmental friendly models with high accuracy.