Frequently Asked Questions

I don't have a printer - what printing service do you recommend?

If you search for "3D printing service," you will find many local and international options. Most providers act as intermediaries for large printing farms, offering various materials and techniques. In Switzerland, only a few companies still operate in-house printers, and most industrial providers focus on B2B services. We recommend Simon from Teil3, who runs over 40 printers in his Altstetten office and offers a simple, fast, and cost-effective service for everyone.

For international orders, CraftCloud has been particularly reliable. They aggregate over 150 professional services globally, offering instant quotes that include shipping. Be aware that tariffs may apply if you ship from a foreign country.

Both Teil3 and CraftCloud are integrated into Topoprint result page. You can upload your model directly to their server and order a print, which will be delivered to you by mail within a few days. Typical costs range from 30 CHF to 45 CHF for a 10cm print, excluding shipping fees. Please note that topoprint.ch is not affiliated with the 3D printing services mentioned, and we do not receive any commissions for referrals.

How can I change or remove the text "topoprint.ch" next to the disc?

The Topodisc Designer has a text box where you can enter your own label using letters, numbers, and a few special characters. If you prefer, you can leave the input box empty, and no label will be created. Please note that this feature may be hidden in the future or available only to a select audience.

I created a Topodisc but I can't find the page anymore.

If you haven't bookmarked your creation, you might be lucky and find it in the list of recently built Topodiscs.

I loaded the STL in my slicer software and it shows some errors. What should I do?

Sometimes, the 3D volumes are not completely "watertight" - despite efforts in our processing pipelines. We are looking into improving the process, but if your slicer software cannot fix it, you might want to use the Online Repair Tools by FormWare and/or print it anyway and see how it comes out. If you know how to automatically fix this with a Python/Linux-based tool, please contact Stephan Heuel.

What's the data source? Can you add other countries?

All models use official Swisstopo data:

• Terrain: swissALTI3D
• Buildings: swissBUILDINGS3D
• Bridges: swissTLM3D (without parametrization)

While other countries have similar data, this project focuses only on Switzerland for now, there are no immediate plans to add other countries. Please get in touch with Stephan Heuel if you are really interested.

swissBUILDINGS3D has roof overhangs, why don't you support them?

While roof overhangs are a very cool detail, they are challenging for 3D printing. Swisstopo's roofs are essentially modelled as surfaces, to use them for solid modeling (and 3D printing), they are extruded by 20cm. Now, if you want a print a model with scale of 1:1000, this would mean that a roof is 0.2 mm thin, usually too thin for regular 3D printing.

Having said this, we can extrude the roof surface to being thicker and generate a model with roof overhangs - but this functionality is not available by default. Please get in touch if you are interested in a model with overhangs.

Why don't you use swissSURFACE3D?

We have an affinity for explicity modelled buildings :-). It's also easier to process and you can identify buildings (even with EGID if you want). We also like the generalization and the ability to model holes (like in the Bundeshaus).

Known Limitations

• Bridges: We developed a parametrized 3D model for creating bridges using the swissTLM3D line geometry. We typically use a standard set of parameters, which might not always match reality perfectly. However, for some bridges, like the Landwasserviadukt, we’ve defined more accurate set of parameters. If you're curious, you can check out the overview of the bridges we've digitized so far (Spoiler: there aren’t too many yet!).
• Data status: Please note that some buildings might be outdated by a few years. You can refer to this map for revision dates related to swissBUILDINGS3D.
• Vegetation: No vegetation (yet).

Contact

Where can I find out more?

You can contact Stephan Heuel or read about it on his blog.