Summary

This is a 3D Map created from openstreetmaps data on which i have drawn roads, rivers and elevation lines using a pen holder instead of my 3D printer head. (like a 3D plotter).

The most up-to-date detail step-by-step operation is described here: https://sites.google.com/view/3dplotting

How I Designed This

Step 0: Print a Pen Holder toolhead.

My simplistic design ( for Creality CR-10) is here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2... There is a lot of room for improvements. If you don’t want to start from scratch, my Fusion360 project is here: http://a360.co/2x2ajtx

Step 1: Gathering topographical data

First, you need to install Maperitive: http://maperitive.net/ . This is a free software that can apparently run on Windows, Mac and Linux (using Mono). I have tested it with windows only. You don’t really need to install it. It is just a matter of unzipping the archive and execute the program inside.
Run the program. Move the map to the location and level of zoom you want. For a first time, i suggest you choose a small area with significant hills or mountain. Do not choose a complete region or country for your first try. The files will be probably too big to complete the process. There are some workarounds for that, but anticipate some additional work. Once at the correct location , i suggest you define it as “home location” to find it more easily next time. (type “set-home” in the console at the bottom)
Today I have decided to work on this lovely part of France which is dear to my heart:

By defaults, the working zone is you current window size.
You can “lock” the working zone, by using the menu Map/Set Geometry Bounds and Map/Set Printing Bounds . This way, the working zone will not be affected even if the window is resized. This is also convenient, if you want to have a square piece of map.
Now, we are facing a tricky part:
Maperitive is using the topographic data from USGS to get the elevation information.
Unfortunately, the USGS a restricted the automated access to these data and this part of maperitive is now broken.
There is a workaroung though:

Note the latitude longitude of the part of map you want to work with. Today it is 46.2°N4.6°E
I have to get the corresponding SRTM3 files . It is named according to the coordinate. In ma case, i have to find the file 46N004E.hgt.zip .
If your working zone covers several degrees of latitude/longitude , you may need several of these files.
To do so , you have to browse this site: https://dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/versio...
Download the corresponding zip files.
Unzip them and Copy the hgt files in the Subfolder of the Maperitive program named Maperitive\Cache\Rasters\SRTM3
You can now go back in Maperitive.
Type CTRL+SHIFT+C
After a few seconds, you should see beautiful elevation contours.

In the Map menu, make sure to untick “Show Map Scale” and “Show Grid”.
In the “Map Sources” Tab , in the lower right corner, make sure to untick all map source except the contours. The map should switch to blank leaving only the elevation layers.
Go to the Menu “Tools / Export to SVG (Inkscape)”
Browse to the “output” subfolder of the Maperitive working directory. You should find a output.svg file. You can open it with your usual web browser, you should see your elevation lines.
Rename output.svg in something meaningful for you. in my case “DEMO-elevation.svg”.
No let’s go back in Maperitive.
Go to the Menu “Tools / Export to 3D”
Browse to the “output / Maperitive3D” subfolder of the Maperitive working directory. You should find a Maperitive3D.dae file. It is a “Collada” file. I can not use it directly in Fusion, so let’s convert it.

Open your web browser to : http://www.greentoken.de/onlineconv...
Upload the DAE file and request a STL conversion.

Download the converted STL file and rename it in something meaningful for you. in my case “DEMO-3DModel.stl”.
Let’s go back to Maperitive.
In the “Map Sources” Tab , in the lower right corner, make sure to untick all map source. the screen should now be blank.
Type CTRL+SHIFT+D .
New vector maps data are downloaded and displayed.

Now, let’s go in the “Rules” subdirectory of the Maperitive Directory. download and copy the three mrules files attached to this thingiverse "thing".

Then go back to Maperitive.
In the command line at the bottom type the following:
use-ruleset location=Rules/Custom-Waterways-only.mrules
and then:
apply-ruleset

You should get a different render of the map: only blue line for rivers, green line for paved roads and red lines for smaller walkways.
Next time , you will not need to create the file and type the command. Simply go to menu Map / Switch to Rules / Custom-Waterways-only.mrules
If you are nerd enough you can tweak the mrules file to adapt the rendering to your needs.

Once again, we will export the map to svg:
Go to the Menu “Tools / Export to SVG (Inkscape)”
Browse to the “output” subfolder of the Maperitive working directory. You should find a output.svg file. You can open it with your usual web browser, you should see your elevation lines.
Rename output.svg in something meaningful for you. in my case “DEMO-Waterways.svg”.
Let’s repeat these steps for other types of informations:

Apply the rule set Custom-Named-Road-only.mrules , export as svg and save it with a proper name.

Then again for “Custom-Non-Named-Road.mrules”

This step is now complete. You can close Maperitive.
You should have now: one stl file and four svg files.

Step 2: Prepare the 3D model in Fusion360.

First you need to have Fusion 360 on your computer. I assume you already have some knowledge of it.
If you don’t have it already, i am afraid it will be quite a big step to start with this project. There are a ton of tutorial on Youtube. Please follow some of them and get back once you will be more familiar with Fusion.
I am not myself an advanced user. Many things here can be improved and i hope you will be able to help me to be more efficient. Feel free to comment.
This being said, let’s run Fusion360.
Open a new project,
Keep in mind that you should save frequently your work. Fusion360 will be under significant CPU load and i have met several crashes.
Create a new component (and activate it)
Click the insert button drop-down menu ; select insert mesh, and insert the stl file created earlier.
You should now see our 3D surface. Unfortunately, this is quite heavy , so i’d like to reduce the number of triangles in the mesh:
Right click on the top level of the tree on the left and select “do not capture design history”.
In the tree select the meshbody you have inserted and swith to the “Mesh” environment.
Then use the remesh function. I kept the default settings.

I am now going back to “model” environment. I right click on the mesh (in the tree) and use the Mesh-to-Brep function.
The newly created BRep body should be now highlighted.
Right click on the top level of the tree on the left and select “Capture design history”.
Now, create a sketch on the horizontal plane. Draw a rectangle with dimensions identical to the projection on the horizontal plane of your piece of 3D map.
Offset this rectangle to create a second rectangle smaller by a very small amount (let’s say 1mm) than the first one.
Extrude the smaller rectangle with enough length to have it higher than the highest mountain of your 3D map.

Now, we will cut the box in 2 parts with the 3D surface.
Use the Split body command (in the modifydrop down menu) and select the box as the body to split and the 3D surface as the cutting tool.
Make sure to select the complete 3D body as cutting tool (by clicking it in the tree on the left) . If you click directly on the object, you will select only one triangle.
After a few dozens of seconds, you should get 2 bodies intead of one.
You can now remove the upper part and hide the 3D plane that are not needed anymore.
We have now our solid ready:

It’s time to scale the model down to our printbed size. Using the “inspect” tool i measure the longer side of our model. in my case it is 6794mm wide (yes!). I want to downsize it to 250mm , so it is a scale factor of : 0,0367971.
Using the modify / scale tool, i apply this scale uniformly to the model.

I use the same tool again to scale the elevation only with a factor 2. This will increase the 3D effect of the map.

Finally I add a small pyramid, seperated from the main model but to be printed all together at the same time. This pyramid will be important for the final step.

This is it, we are now ready to 3D print.
Go to Make / 3D Print and export the STL file to your favorite slicer.
When the print is complete: Do not remove it from the bed. If you have a glass or mirror bed held by clips, make sure to note touch anything.

After printing, i suggest you to use a primer to have a smoother surface.
I use myself the Optimus primer from filament-abs.fr :https://www.filament-abs.fr/produit/produit-de-lissage-optimus/

Step 3: Prepare the Gcode for drawing

In the model environment, let’s create a construction plane parallel to the ground plane. I offset it by a few centimers as i want it to be above the highest hill of my model.

Now, This new plane being selected, click import / Import SVG file and select one of the svg file created at step 1. In my case, i will chose the simplest one (the waterways) to make it easier for fusion.

Now, this is the step that is the most difficult for me at this stage. I don’t know how to automate that.
You have to align the svg file and the 3D model. You need to adjust both the position and the scale. I don’t know how do it except by repeating trials and mistakes.
After finalizing the svg positioning a new sketch is created according to the svg drawing.

it is now time to let the magic happens, Let’s switch to the CAM environment.
In the CAM, click “New Setup”.
In the first tab, configure as shown on this screenshot.
Make sure to configure the coordinate system as the printer works. and the origin should be the top of the pyramid.

In the second tab, select the stock as “from solid” and select both bodies (the 3D model and the pyramid).

The third tab can be left unchanged. You can click OK.

Now, in the “3D” dropdown menu, Select “Project” in order to create the toolpath for our pen.
First, let’s select our tool. I choose a random spot drill of small size. But if I have time to loose some day, i will create a tool that will reflect more accurately our pen holder.
Disable coolant.
Change the feed speed to 1000mm/min.

That’s it for the first tab.

In the second tab, we are going to select all the curves we want to draw. Here There is a tip:
When you will click on curve, only a small segment of the curve will be highlighted. You need to click a second time and then to move the mouse along the curve to select it entirely. Then click on the green “+” to confirm the selection.
You can see a screencast of this operation here: https://screencast.autodesk.com/Embed/Timeline/515d49ab-d913-4889-bc8d-4571ff9f8ba4

In the third tab, we define the various reference height in our project.
Top height defines the highest point of the model.
Retract height defines by how mm we will offset the pen when we don’t want to draw.
Clearance height defines the level for fast move.
The values below are not optimized , but whatever, At this stage i am not looking at reducing my machine time.

In the last tab, You can leave everything unchanged but the last item: The entry point chould be your origin (the top of the pyramid).

You can now enjoy a simulation: Press simulate and watch your pen following the surface of your terrain:

It is now time to generate the Gcode corresponding to that movement of the pen.
Here I have to give huge credits to Tech2C. He inspires this project with his video where he converts his Hypercube printer into a plotter.

Let’s download his Hypercube.cps on thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2459624/#files
And put in on the Autodesk cloud following this tutorial: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-install-a-cloud-post-in-Fusion-360.html

Once it is done, let’s go back in Fusion360; and click the postprocessor button.
Press Setup and select “Cloud Posts”.
Then in the Post configuration select Hypercube.cps,
Finally select the folder in which you want to output the gcode and choose a proper name (and a fancy text to be shown on the printer LCD if you wish).

After pressing print, you will get your Gcode file:

You can preview the result with a gcode simulator such as: https://nraynaud.github.io/webgcode/
(Do not try a gcode simulator dedicated to 3D printer such as gcode.ws or the one in octopi. They won’t work).

Put the gcode on your Sdcard and load it on the printer.
Install a permanent pen in the pen holder.
Gently move manually the axis in order to have the tip of the pen on the top of the pyramid.
the tip of the pen has to be perfectly aligned (on X and Y axis) with the tip of the pyramid.
Regarding Z axis, the pen tip should apply a very gentle pressure. Just as much pressure as you would apply manually to draw with this pen.
Start the print . And pray. You should get the expected result.
If you wish to play with my files, they are available here:
The fusion project is available here: http://a360.co/2x0uyrw

Step 4 : Enjoy your work

Have a beer and a good sleep. And tommorrow, come back and let me know your comments.

Print a 3D Map - Draw on top of it