Free Topographical vectors anywhere?

[jhicks]

Have been considering some Topo reliefs and wondering if anyone has a web site to get free lake, mountain, or other topo maps that could be used for vectors and scaling for routing.
Heard and thought about Google earth to use photos too but thought I would ask if anyone has "been there; done that"

[zeykr]

Jerry, Think what you want is DEM (digital elevation map)data. With a package like Global Mapper you can convert the elevation data into STL or 3d-dxf importable in to artcam or cut3d. Works very well, although you have to play with scaling some. You can often find DEM data for your local area through a google search and it's often free on university or county web sites. The detail available does vary quite a bit by area. USGS also sells the data for fairly reasonable costs. I did a write up someplace a couple years ago on using Global Mapper and DEM data - If I can find I'll email to you.

[jhicks]

Thanks for the post and the note Ken. I'll get more searching and experimenting going.

[jseiler]

Microdem - free and converts gis data to grayscale elevation:

http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdem.htm

free gis data here:
http://data.geocomm.com/


find the right gis map here:
(features database)

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

If you go to wayhoo, download the right map, scale it with the software, convert to grayscale, and output a jpg or bmp, you can cut that with anything that will cut a lithophane.

John

[jhicks]

Thanks John, sounds easy enough. I'll give these a try.

[jamesb]

Jerry, many years ago I did some Topo maps as a demo for ArtCAM. There was a company called MapMart - http://www.mapmart.com who could sell you DEM data for a precise location (as long as you knew the lat and long co-ords). Not sure if they still do this or not but if your looking to make a 3D topo of a specific place then they might be the way to go. Cheers, James

[jhicks]

Thanks James