Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 10 Laser subsurface
engraving of the high-
mountain terrain around the
Großglockner (3798 m)
the 3D relief model. Before the transformation process the respective geo-infor-
mation is printed onto a foil considering the geometry parameters after transfor-
mation. This method allows to produce big runs of non-planar relief depictions, and
thus the individual copies become comparatively inexpensive. (Rase
2009
,
2012
).
Laser subsurface engravings or laser etchings, also colloquially called 3D
drawings, are generated with lasers, which engrave opaque points inside a block of
glass, e. g. engrave a globe-model (Rase
2009
,
2012
). Figure
10
shows a small
specimen displaying the high-mountain terrain around Austria's highest peak,
Großglockner (3798 m) and the largest glacier of the Eastern Alps, the Pasterze.
An attractive possibility for customers who want to create their own relief models is
the offer from LandPrint.com
TM
. With the LandPrint DesignerTM software the user
can interactively select an area in 3D and even can load own GPS-tracks to integrate
them into the relief model. LandPrint.com
TM
announces that it will be possible to apply
own maps or images to a generated 3D model soon. The models are colour-printed with
the 3D printers of ZCorporation (
www.Landprint
,
www.ZCorp_press
)
.
Rase (
2009
) emphasizes the potential of solid 3D models, either topographic
(georelief) or thematic (Fig.
11
), as demonstration or discussion tools for decision
makers or simply as eye-catchers. But since 3D models are haptic, rapid proto-
typing is not only useful to produce models to look at, but also to generate tactile
maps for the blind or visually impaired (see
Sect. 6
''Tactile Maps'').
3.2 Handmade Landscape Models
Around the 16th century the first landscape models were generated by hand. In the
19th century relief modelling reached its heyday in Switzerland because of the
technical developments in both cartography and geodesy (Buchroithner
2007
;
