Boston CityPrint C-12

thingiverse

Finally, you can download and 3D print the terrain and buildings for any part of Boston - or all of it! These tiles cover the entire city, with each tile measuring 1km x 1km, and not a single building is missing. First, use the map at the BPDA 3D Smart Model site to find your tile, then head to our collection of tiles and look for the code ("J-9" for example). Finally, just download and print! We recommend using white PLA, setting the layer height to 0.2mm, printing with four top layers and two bottom layers, and adjusting the retraction to prevent stringing between buildings. Alternatively, you can contact us for pricing if you'd like a set of printed and finished tiles. The geometry is in millimeters, so if you print it as-is, you'll get a 100x100mm tile at a scale of 1:10000. At this scale, all of Boston would be 6 feet high and 7.5 feet wide. If you print it 200% size, the model will be 1:5000 scale and each tile will measure 200x200mm. If you printed every tile, the resulting map would be 12.5 feet high and 15 feet wide! This project is being done by the CityPrint initiative, and you can see their progress at the Boston Society for Architecture Space at 290 Congress St. All models come with four cylindrical holes at the bottom that perfectly accept 6mm diameter, 1mm thick disc magnets when printed to original size. We recommend gluing two or four Neodymium magnets into those spaces - each magnet costs around 20 cents from various online retailers. Two will be enough to stick to a refrigerator, while four provides a strong grip. Scuff the top (glued side) of the magnet with 100 grit sandpaper for better adhesion. If you print the piece at 1:5000 scale, you'll need to use 12mm diameter by 2mm thick disc magnets. While the BPDA site already has 3D models of all the terrain and building geometry in various formats, none of those are ready to 3D print due to gaps, holes, and overlaps that need to be cleaned up. We did all that work so you don't have to. Just download and print any tile you want at home, or contact us for pricing. MiniCty offers remarkably detailed, professionally 3D printed cityscapes for dozens of US and world cities using data far more detailed than these tiles. Check out our website to see our work. This project wouldn't have happened without the freely available data from the Boston Planning & Development Agency (provided without warranty) and support from Artists For Humanity. The work to prepare and post these tiles was done by Suleiman Hussein and MiniCty founder Mark Stock. [BPDA 3D Smart Model site](http://www.bostonplans.org/3d-data-maps/3d-smart-model/3d-data-download) [Thingiverse Collection of all Boston Tiles](https://www.thingiverse.com/minicty/collections/boston-city-tiles) [CityPrint project](https://www.architects.org/exhibitions/cityprint) [Boston Planning & Development Agency](http://www.bostonplans.org/) [Artists For Humanity](http://afhboston.org/) [MiniCty](http://minicty.com/) [MiniCty on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/shop/MiniCty)