Boston CityPrint I-14

thingiverse

Finally, you can download and 3D print the terrain and buildings for any part of Boston - or all of it! These 1km x 1km tiles cover the entire city, leaving no single building unrepresented. 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, simply download and print! We recommend using white PLA, layer heights set to 0.2mm, four top layers and two 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. The geometry is in millimeters, so printing it as-is will yield a 100x100mm (4"x4") tile at a scale of 1:10000. At this scale, all of Boston would stand 6 feet high and 7.5 feet wide. If you print it 200% size, the model will be 1:5000 scale, with each tile measuring 200x200mm (8"x8"). If you printed every tile, the resulting map would reach a height of 12.5 feet and a width of 15 feet! This is being done by the CityPrint project, which you can see making progress at the Boston Society for Architecture Space at 290 Congress St. All models come with four cylindrical holes at the bottom, which will perfectly accept 6mm diameter, 1mm thick disc magnets when the piece is printed to original size. We suggest gluing two or four Neodymium magnets into those spaces - they cost around 20 cents each from a variety of online retailers. Two will provide enough grip to stick to a refrigerator, while four offers a nice, strong hold. To ensure better adhesion, scuff the top (glued side) of the magnet with 100 grit sandpaper. 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 of the terrain and building geometry in a variety of formats, none are ready for 3D printing due to gaps, holes, and overlaps that need cleaning up. We've done all the 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 what's in these tiles. Check out our website (link below) 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/)