Useful map objects

Things you use every day, shaped by a real place: bookends that hold a mountain range between them, a vase or pen pot wrapped in the skyline from your favourite viewpoint, a keepsake box with a map on the lid, and a lamp shade that glows with the view.

Object

Place

Length on the ground Front faces

See as far as Eye height

Or start from an example

Alps bookends Mount Fuji vase Grand Canyon box Yosemite lamp Rockies pen pot Paris map box

Bookends

A strip of real terrain, as deep as the bookends, so the ridges, valleys and faces are all there.

The elevation along the line as a clean outline, the same from front to back.

Range across both bookends Height of the highest peak Height of the lowest point Depth, front to back Where the books split the range Plate under the books

Weight pockets underneath Rubber feet

Vase, pen pot or planter

On the wall

The view all the way round from where you stand, raised on the wall, nearer ridges higher.

The top edge follows the skyline all the way round. Not for vase mode: the rim has to be printed as walls.

A strip of terrain wrapped round the wall, north at the top when the front faces east.

Walls

One continuous wall: turn on vase mode (spiralize) in your slicer. The file is a solid, the slicer keeps only its outside. Holds dry flowers; for water use a 0.8 mm nozzle line or a liner.

Width Height

Top width Shape Mountains reach Relief depth Wall thickness Drainage hole

Keepsake box

On the lid

Relief height

Streets, rivers, parks and buildings from OpenStreetMap, each raised to its own height.

Width Depth

Height of the box

Lid fit (gap each side) Magnets in the corners

Name inside the lid

Lamp shade

Like a lithophane: the wall is thicker where the mountains are, so they show dark against a glowing sky. Print in white or natural filament.

The top edge follows the skyline and the light spills over it. Sits on the holder plate the other way up, as a table light.

Terrain wrapped round the wall as a lithophane: high ground shows darker, valleys glow.

Fits Hole for the holder

Width Height

Top width Shape Mountains reach Thickest wall (darkest)

LED bulbs only. Plastic softens near a hot bulb: use an LED bulb of 7 W or less (about 60 W equivalent) or an LED tealight, never a halogen or filament bulb or a candle.

Print

Engrave terraprinter.com underneath

Free to sell what you make. Credit terraprinter.com and keep the data credits. License

How these are made

Bookends that share one range

The range runs along the line you set on the map. We cut it in two where the books go, so with books between them the left bookend rises into the range and the right one carries on from where it stopped. A thin plate runs under the books, so their weight holds the bookend down. Underneath there are pockets for coins, washers or steel discs, and recesses for stick-on rubber feet.

A skyline all the way round

From the viewpoint you pick we trace the horizon in every direction, every tenth of a degree, out to as far as 200 km, with earth's curvature and normal refraction. Far ridges are raised a little and nearer ones more. Every change in the wall leans at 40° or less, so the vase prints in spiral vase mode without supports.

A lid that fits

The lid has a solid plug that drops into the box and a 45° seat that sits on the box's chamfered rim, so it centres itself and prints flat, with no bridges. Pick the gap that suits your printer. Magnet pockets sit in the corners of both parts: glue the magnets in with opposite poles facing.

Lamp shades

Shades fit the ring of a standard E27 or E14 lamp holder, or sit over an LED tealight. The glowing designs work like a lithophane: the wall is between 1.2 mm and the thickness you choose. Use LED light only. Every file is one closed solid in millimetres, checked so each edge joins exactly two faces.

Elevation © Mapzen / AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM, GMTED2010, ETOPO1 and others). Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO. Want the whole mountain instead? Open the TerraPrinter app or see more 3D map gift ideas.