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Fifty or more years ago, a highlight of a trip to the Harvard Geological Museum was a protracted viewing of a large topographical map of the Boston, Massachusetts area. If you lived in an old house - one that existed when the model was made in the early 1900's - you could find it as a tiny cube of faded, cream-white plaster. The advent of airplanes and aerial photography had finally made it possible to make such precise models, but it still must have been a prodigious effort requiring many hours and very skilled hands. (See photo at the bottom of the page.) In the last few years, rapid prototyping has removed the construction of such complex topographic models from the realm of extreme skill. And more recently, it's become possible to make models in accurate colors, as well. Like airplanes in the 1900's, this is a new capability in the world, and the consequences of being able to generate such accurate models on an almost trivial basis are as yet unknown.

A full-color urban landscape made with three dimensional printing. (Courtesy of Z Corporation.)

Z Corporation has led the way in the field of geographic information system (GIS) models, first with its Model Z406 and more recently with the Z510 which prints in 24-bit color. The MIT three dimensional printing technology on which these machines are based, can deliver models in hours rather than the days or weeks it takes to make equivalents using CNC or molding techniques. Materials costs are also very low, typically in the few tens to hundreds of dollars. For example the model of the state of Illinois shown here cost only about $300 in materials. The high fidelity 600 x 540 dpi printing capability also make it possible to print labels on models, making them much more self-explanatory for users and overcoming a previous limitation.

Printing capability of the Z510. The smallest characters are just 4 pts. (Courtesy of Z Corporation.)

While virtual reality (VR) has some advantages over physical models such as being able to provide walk-throughs, fly-overs and real-time revisions, humans have lifelong training in interpreting 3D objects. Slight changes in point of view remove obstacles in the line of sight and make it easy for people to understand the information. VR is also still very expensive for group viewing and doesn't easily provide feedback from the sense of touch. [1] Typical applications for topographic models include terrain, urban and sub-surface maps, but the ability to easily generate and replicate them in color expands the possibilities. It makes it easy to combine data with geographic information to make representations of population densities, property values, ocean temperatures, or any other variable.

Click Photo to Enlarge. Data can be combined with a physical model to create new levels of understanding as in this population density map of Germany. (Courtesy of Wolf-Dieter Rase, Federal Office for Building & Spatial Planning, Bonn, Germany.)

It can be expected that the traditional users of topographic models such as universities, military and government and the oil & gas industries will be the most immediate beneficiaries of this capability. Urban planners, landscape architects, geologists, model railroaders and other hobbyists will take a little longer to learn about it. That may be the start of an era to become known as, "The Great Plaster Shortage." The state of Illinois made in 8 individual tiles of approximately 8 X 10 in. Vertical heights were exaggerated 30X and the model weighs about 12 lbs. The model was created by Mr. Kingsley Allan for the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois. (Photography courtesy of Benjamin Grosser, Beckman Institute for Advance Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.)

For more info Contact: Roger A Kelesoglu, Director, Business Development RKelesoglu@zcorp.com Z Corporation 32 Second Ave. Burlington, MA 01803 781-852-5005 781-852-5100 FX

Topological map of Boston in the Harvard Geological Museum without its ornate Victorian glass case. Click on the photo for an enlarged view of the city indicated at the arrow. (Photograph from Surging Cities, by Theodore T. McCrosky; published by Greater Boston Development Committee, 1948.)

[1] Physical Models Of GIS Objects by Rapid Prototyping. Wolf-Dieter Rase. ISPRS Technical Commission IV Symposium 2002; July 9 -12, 2002, Ottawa, Canada. [International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.] [PDF File format.]