3D models of existing geographical landscape.

My buddy is an avid white water rafter, and I thought it would be a good idea to print him out a 3D representation the river and valley surrounding his favorite run on the Salmon River in Idaho.

I'm sure there is some open source software somewhere that will eventually allow me to construct a STL file...

Searches have come up with data sets, but no tools to manipulate the data. Anyone have experience with this kind of stuff?

Searching thingiverse.com for usgs comes up with some possible hits. [www.thingiverse.com] in particular has instructions that look like they might work..

Not open source, but there's a fairly inexpensive convertor called Accutrans. It's a format translator that handles US geographic survey and other DEM data, builds meshes out of it, and translates to .stl or .dxf and others. Here: [www.micromouse.ca]

Dave Durant Wrote:
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> Searching thingiverse.com for usgs comes up with
> some possible hits.
> [www.thingiverse.com] in
> particular has instructions that look like they
> might work..


Exactly what I was looking for, thanks!