Need to find 3D files for continents

[matt_p]

Fellow 'botters
I am looking for dxf or other files for cutting reliefs of the continents. I have a huge oppurtunity with this job. Does anyone have any clues or leeds for files of this type?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[paco]

www.3dcafe.com (http://www.3dcafe.com)

www.amazing3d.com (http://www.amazing3d.com)

www.cacheforce.com (http://www.cacheforce.com)

www.flashfire.com (http://www.flashfire.com)

www.turbosquid.com (http://www.turbosquid.com)

www.the3darchive.com (http://www.the3darchive.com)

[dvanr]

Try contacting this guy. Stumbled across his site when I stuck " carve cnc font " into google a few weeks back.

http://www.peasley.com/

DvanR

[webbhead]

DEM or (digital elevation model) data for the entire globe can be found here. http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/globeget.html. This will probably contain more 3d terrain detail than you need (or have time to cut), but you may be able to simplify/reduce vertices in your 3d/cad program.

You'll need to download & unzip the data, then convert DEM to DXF. This could be the challenge.

Here's a util I found that converts DEM to DXF. http://www.vterrain.org/Packages/Hosted/dem2dxf.zip. Haven't tried it, but it's worth a hack. I'm sure there's more converters out there. DEM data historically has had so many different formats, but NGDC says they've standardized this entire data set.

Instructions for importing the data into common viewers: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/report/s11/s11G.html (various viewer softwares shown... not sure if they also have DXF converters).

Been wanting to cut topos, but haven't had the time. Good luck & let us know how it goes... John

[webbhead]

PS. I unzipped the DEM2DXF util. It has command line options to optimize the resultant DXF mesh as well as crop it, & preview stats for the proposed conversion before actually doing it.

[zeykr]

Take a look at global mapper (www.globalmapper.com (http://www.globalmapper.com)) - it's an easier way to deal with the DEM and other map data and export to stl or dxf.

[matt@summitgdc.com]

Thanks to all for the info. That's why I love shopbot, the forum is invaluable as a resource. I was able on my own to find files that would work, but the converting to usabledxf is going to be the challenge, not to mention actually cutting the files and producing molds for copies.
Thanks again,
See you at the Jamboree.

ps. the forum wont let me in as registered.