The document describes a project that takes a postcode or OS map reference as input to generate a .STL file of the terrain area, which can then be 3D printed. The open source code is available on GitHub and allows anyone from hobbyists to developers to easily visualize large terrain areas and support decision making. It utilizes free Ordnance Survey data and an open API to convert postcodes to grid references to generate the 3D printable terrain files.

1. OS2STL

2. Project Description

Our program takes a given post code or OS
map reference to create a .STL file of the
area which can then be sent to a 3d printer.

In this way you can easily visualise large
areas of terrain and make decisions regarding
development from this.

All of our code is available on github at:
github.com/RobertABT/heightmapwebapp

Live demo os2stl.co.uk

3. The Team

Robert Buchan-Terrey

Ferdia McKeogh

Linus Kirkwood

4. Why?

A year ago I was looking around at 3d printing
areas of land to help plan a radio broadband
link which required line of sight.

Scale models of this sort could be used by
anyone from model hobbyists, to tabletop
gamers to property developers.

5. Existing solutions

There are some existing tools and methods to
create .stl files from given areas but they are
either expensive and closed source, fiddly or
very difficult to implement.

(For loading terrain data into Openfoam there
is an 18 page pdf document!)

6. The data

Our project uses Ordnance Survey Terrain50
data files (which are downloadable from their
website) to generate the .stl files

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-
and-government/products/terrain-50.html

It also uses an open source API to convert
post codes to OS grid references.
http://www.nearby.org.uk/api/

7. The code

The web app uses a mix of Python (which
does the core processing) along with
Javascript and HTML (to display the webpage
and the .STL file preview)