Boston CityPrint O-7

thingiverse

Finally, the wait is over - you can now download and 3D print the terrain and buildings for any part of Boston, or even the entire city! These 1km x 1km tiles cover every inch of the city, leaving no single building unaccounted for. First, head to the BPDA 3D Smart Model site (link below) to find your tile, then visit our Collection of tiles (link below) and look for the code ("J-9" for example). After that, simply download and print! We recommend using white PLA, a layer height of 0.2mm, four top layers, two bottom layers, and a little retraction to prevent stringing between buildings. Or, if you prefer, contact us for pricing on a set of printed and finished tiles. The geometry is in millimeters, so printing it as-is will give you a 100x100mm (4"x4") tile at 1:10000 scale. At this scale, all of Boston would be just six feet high and seven and a half feet wide. If you print it 200% size, the model will be at 1:5000 scale and each tile will measure 200x200mm (8"x8"). If every tile were printed, the resulting map would be an impressive 12.5 feet high and 15 feet wide! This project is being done by CityPrint, 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, which will perfectly accept 6mm diameter, 1mm thick disc magnets when printed at original size. We recommend gluing two or four Neodymium magnets into those spaces - these cost around twenty cents each from various online retailers. Two will be enough to stick to a refrigerator, while four provides a strong grip. Just scuff the top (glued side) of the magnet with 100 grit sandpaper for better adhesion. If you print the piece at 1:5000 scale, however, you'll need to use 12mm diameter by 2mm thick disc magnets. The BPDA site already has 3D models of all the terrain and building geometry in a variety of formats, but none are ready to 3D print. Those data contains gaps, holes, and overlaps that need to be cleaned up. We've done 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 provide. 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/) [MiniCty on Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/shop/MiniCty)