Boston CityPrint D-5

thingiverse

Finally, you can download and 3D print the terrain and buildings for any part of Boston - or all of it! These tiles measure 1km x 1km and cover the entire city completely without a single building missing.\r\n\r\nFirst, use the map at the BPDA 3D Smart Model site (link below) to find your tile, then head to our Collection of tiles (link below) and look for the code ("J-9" for example). Finally, just download and print! We recommend printing with white PLA, 0.2mm layer heights, 4 top layers and 2 bottom layers, and a little retraction to prevent stringing between buildings. Alternatively, if you'd like a set of printed and finished tiles, please contact us for pricing.\r\n\r\nThe geometry is in millimeters, so printing it as-is will result in a 100x100mm (4"x4") tile at 1:10000 scale. At this scale, all of Boston would be six feet high and seven-and-a-half feet wide. If you print it two hundred percent larger, the model will be 1:5000 scale and each tile will measure 200x200mm (8"x8"). If you printed every tile, the resulting map would be twelve and a half feet high and fifteen feet wide! In fact, this is being done by the CityPrint project, and you can see their progress at the Boston Society for Architecture Space located at 290 Congress Street.\r\n\r\nAll models come with four cylindrical holes at the bottom. These will perfectly accept six-millimeter-diameter, one-millimeter-thick disc magnets when the piece is printed to its original size. We recommend gluing two or four Neodymium magnets into those spaces - the magnets cost about twenty cents each from a variety of online retailers. Two will be enough to stick to a refrigerator, while four provides a nice strong grip. Scuff the top (glued side) of the magnet with one hundred grit sandpaper for better adhesion. Obviously, if you print the piece at 1:5000 scale, you will need to use twelve-millimeter-diameter by two-millimeter-thick disc magnets.\r\n\r\nWhile the BPDA site already has 3D models of all the terrain and building geometry in a variety of formats, none of those are ready to 3D print. Those data contains 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.\r\n\r\nMiniCty offers remarkably-detailed, professionally 3D printed cityscapes for dozens of US and world cities, using data far more detailed than what's seen in these tiles. Check out our web site (link below) to see our work.\r\n\r\nThis 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.\r\n\r\n[BPDA 3D Smart Model site](http://www.bostonplans.org/3d-data-maps/3d-smart-model/3d-data-download)\r\n[Thingiverse Collection of all Boston Tiles](https://www.thingiverse.com/minicty/collections/boston-city-tiles)\r\n[CityPrint project](https://www.architects.org/exhibitions/cityprint)\r\n[Boston Planning & Development Agency](http://www.bostonplans.org/)\r\n[Artists For Humanity](http://afhboston.org/)\r\n[MiniCty](http://minicty.com/)\r\n[MiniCty on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/shop/MiniCty)