The map data we use

Where the data comes from

• Heights: the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP). It is public domain.
• Water, roads, trails, buildings and parks: OpenStreetMap, a map made by volunteers. It is shared under the Open Database License (ODbL).

We do not add map data of our own. We only pick some of it, for the box you choose, and turn it into a print.

We get it two ways. We may ask a public OpenStreetMap server for your box. Or we may read it from our own copy: each week we download the free OpenStreetMap files for the United States from Geofabrik (download.geofabrik.de) and keep only the tags listed below. Our copy is a filtered OpenStreetMap database under the same license, and you can ask us for it.

The tags we read

• Water: natural=water, waterway=riverbank, landuse=reservoir, waterway=river and canal, and natural=coastline.
• Roads: highway=motorway, trunk, primary, secondary, tertiary and their links, plus unclassified, residential, living_street, road, busway, pedestrian and service.
• Trails: highway=path, footway, bridleway, steps, track and cycleway.
• Buildings: building=* (but not building=no), with height=, or building:levels= for the height.
• Parks: leisure=park, garden, golf_course, recreation_ground and nature_reserve; boundary=national_park; landuse=forest, grass, meadow and recreation_ground; natural=wood.

We skip tunnels, sidewalks, crossings, parking aisles and driveways. Big boxes skip small things: smaller roads, trails and buildings drop out as the box grows, because they would be too small to print.

The rules we use

• The map is cut into small square cells. Each cell gets one kind: land, water, road, building or park.
• Where two kinds overlap, this order wins: building, then road, then water, then park, then land.
• Road widths on the ground: motorway 14 m, trunk 12 m, primary 11 m, secondary 10 m, tertiary 9 m, motorway_link 7 m, trunk_link 7 m, primary_link 7 m, secondary_link 7 m, tertiary_link 7 m, unclassified 7 m, residential 7 m, living_street 6 m, road 6 m, busway 7 m, pedestrian 5 m, service 4 m.
• Trail widths: footway 2 m, path 1.5 m, cycleway 2.5 m, bridleway 2 m, track 3 m, steps 2 m. Rivers drawn as a line: river 15 m, canal 10 m. A width= tag wins.
• No line prints thinner than 0.8 mm. A thin road is made wider so it prints.
• Specks: a patch of one color smaller than about 1.2 x 1.2 mm joins the color around it.
• Roads and trails stand 0.6 mm above the land.
• Building heights: the height= tag, or building:levels= times 3 m. With neither, we use 6 m (3 m for sheds and garages). On the print a building stands 0.8 to 8 mm tall.
• Every building is a simple flat-topped block: its outline, raised by its height. No roof shapes, no walls in detail, no landmark models.
• Heights of the land are stretched so small hills show up. Each map is a keepsake, not for navigation.

The query we send

This is the query for a sample 5 km box with every layer on. Each map sends its own box, rounded out a little, and only the layers you pick.

[out:json][timeout:90][maxsize:268435456][bbox:39.715000,-105.020000,39.765000,-104.960000];
(
  way["natural"="water"];
  relation["natural"="water"];
  way["waterway"="riverbank"];
  relation["waterway"="riverbank"];
  way["landuse"="reservoir"];
  relation["landuse"="reservoir"];
  way["waterway"~"^(river|canal)$"]["tunnel"!~"^(yes|building_passage|culvert)$"];
  way["natural"="coastline"];
  way["highway"~"^(motorway|trunk|primary|motorway_link|trunk_link|primary_link|secondary|secondary_link|tertiary|tertiary_link|unclassified|residential|living_street|road|busway|pedestrian)$"]["tunnel"!~"^(yes|building_passage|culvert)$"]["service"!~"^(parking_aisle|driveway|drive-through)$"];
  way["highway"~"^(path|footway|bridleway|steps|track|cycleway)$"]["tunnel"!~"^(yes|building_passage|culvert)$"]["footway"!~"^(sidewalk|crossing)$"];
  way["building"]["building"!="no"];
  relation["building"]["building"!="no"]["type"="multipolygon"];
  way["boundary"="national_park"];
  relation["boundary"="national_park"];
  way["leisure"~"^(park|garden|golf_course|recreation_ground|nature_reserve)$"];
  relation["leisure"~"^(park|garden|golf_course|recreation_ground|nature_reserve)$"];
  way["landuse"="forest"];
  relation["landuse"="forest"];
  way["natural"="wood"];
  relation["natural"="wood"];
  way["landuse"~"^(grass|meadow|recreation_ground)$"];
  relation["landuse"~"^(grass|meadow|recreation_ground)$"];
);
out geom qt;

Ask for the data behind your map

If you have one of our maps, you can ask for the map data we used to make it. We do not keep the place with your order, so tell us the place and how wide the box was. Email support@3dprintsfast.com and we will send you the data for that box.