Relleu Obert turns a piece of real map into a 3D model that can be printed for the classroom

Relleu Obert, with the slogan “Geografia que pots tocar” (“Geography you can touch”), generates 3D models of real places that can be viewed in the browser and printed. According to its website, it is the work of Aarón Fortuño, it is free and open source under the MIT licence, and for now the interface is available only in Catalan, with four other languages still to come.

You start from an address or coordinates and choose the size, whether you want just the relief or the full model, and the vertical exaggeration. You can add trees, rivers, roads, paths and buildings drawn from OpenStreetMap, the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC) and the Cadastre, draw routes or import a GPX file, and leave holes for pins or flags. The models are exported as 3MF or STL.

The author says in the group that he built it with AI and that the mesh is calculated in the browser, with no data stored on a server. His motivation is that, when working on relief with primary school pupils, paper means little to them and being able to touch the model enriches the experience. He shares photos of the first prototype printed at his school, a 10 × 10 cm model of a cove with cliffs, and announces a separate repository of models of notable places in more detail.