Wiresherpa

Google Earth and 3D Printers to Build Mountains

Oct 24, 2007 Innovation

We have been closely following the rise of 3D printers since the first home 3D printer came out a few months back. Just like any new invention, there seems to be no limit for the things that can be created/printed with this device. We had talked about printing gadget accessories and models from a 3D printer, but Sweet Onion Creations has scaled the heights by importing a 3D image from Google Earth and replicating the same using a 3D printer.

SOC was preparing for a seminar which required them to display a geographical region to explain the work in progress. The ingenuity of making use of items that already existed in different forms to bring together into a new one was demonstrated by them. These are the different steps taken by SOC:

2:36 pm: Download Google Sketchup to my computer. Begin flipping through Google 3D Warehouse for ideas on what is available for topography.

2:48 pm: Bingo! I find a beautiful mountain topography file, complete with a smooth valley floor that looks eerily similar to the Bridger mountain range around Bozeman, Montana.

2:52 pm: Download the 3d model off Google, import it into the software program, Rhino 3d, using a Sketchup plug-in. The model comes in as a surface. This would be like having a towel thrown on the floor…great wrinkles but no real thickness. So, we have to make it a “thick surface” using some extrusion tricks in Rhino.

2:53 pm: Grab the Sweet Onion Creations logo in .eps format and slap it on the valley floor and make it a 3-D object using Rhino. This is to show that a firm’s logo can be branded on the model.

2:55 pm: The 3-D printer is fired up, fed the file, and is off and running.

3:34 pm: 3-D printer finishes the model and the model is ready for depowdering, hardening, and painting.

After this experiment, model creation can easily reach new heights. Many places around the globe could be modeled conveniently for display and education purposes.