Boston CityPrint E-7

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, not a single building missing.\r\n\r\nFirst, 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). Download and print! We recommend white PLA, 0.2mm layer heights, four top layers, two bottom layers, and a little retraction to prevent stringing between buildings. Or, if you'd like a set of printed and finished tiles, contact us for pricing.\r\n\r\nThe geometry is in millimeters, so printing it as-is will get you a 100x100mm 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 200% size, the model will be 1:5000 scale and each tile will measure 200x200mm (eight inches by eight inches). If you printed every tile, the resulting map would be twelve-and-a-half feet high and fifteen 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 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 original size. We recommend gluing two or four Neodymium magnets into those spaces - the magnets cost around twenty cents each from a variety of online retailers. Two will be enough to stick to a refrigerator, four provides a nice strong grip. Scuff the top (glued side) of the magnet with 100 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 of the terrain and building geometry in various 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 you'll see in these tiles. Check out our web site to see our work.\r\n\r\nThis project would not 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)