Boston CityPrint Q-10

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 building unaccounted for. First, 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), where you'll need to look for the code ("J-9" for example). Finally, just download and print! We recommend using white PLA with 0.2mm layer heights, 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 1:10,000 scale. At this scale, all of Boston would be approximately six feet high and seven and a half feet wide. Printing it at double the size will result in a 1:5,000 scale model, with each tile measuring 200x200mm (8"x8"). If you were to print 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 located at 290 Congress Street. All models come with four cylindrical holes at the bottom. These will perfectly accept 6mm diameter, 1mm thick disc magnets when printed to 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 magnets should be enough to stick to a refrigerator, while four provides a nice, strong grip. Just scuff the top (glued side) of the magnet with 100 grit sandpaper for better adhesion. If you print the piece at 1:5,000 scale, you will need to use 12mm diameter by 2mm thick disc magnets. While the BPDA site already has 3D models of all terrain and building geometry in a variety of formats, none of those are ready to be 3D printed. 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. MiniCty 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 (link below) to see our work. This 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. [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)