Best 3D Map Generators (2026): Terrain, City & Trail STL

Maps are one of the most rewarding things to print: a mountain you climbed, the island where you got married, the route of your first marathon, or a crater on the Moon. All of them start from real elevation data, and all of them can be made without touching CAD.

Quick answer

• Best free terrain generator: Terrain2STL. Drag a box on the map, download the STL.
• Best for control over the output: TouchTerrain, a university-built tool that makes printable terrain tiles.
• Best for cities and multicolor: Map2Model and TerraPrinter, both free to use and able to export 3MF.
• Best for running and cycling routes: GPXtruder.
• Best for the Moon, Mars and other worlds: OrbitStudio (made by us).

Every map and terrain tool we list is on the maps and terrain generators page.

Mountains and landscapes

For a mountain or a landscape, start with Terrain2STL: free, no account, drag a box over any spot on Earth and download the terrain as an STL. It has been around for years and just works. map2stl.com works the same way on a Google terrain map, and its footer credits Terrain2STL as the inspiration for its backend: move the box, set the vertical scale, base height and a water drop, and download a plain terrain block, free and without an account.

TouchTerrain comes from a university research group and gives you more control over tile size, resolution and base thickness. It exports STL and OBJ and can split big areas into several tiles.

TerraPrinter is the most feature-packed option: it adds OpenStreetMap buildings, roads and water, splits big areas into tiles, and offers puzzle and voxel styles, globes and 18 gift makers, with STL, 3MF, OBJ and GLB export. Making models is free; from 1 November 2026, selling prints needs a yearly license from $50. Its sister site TerraPuzzle does only puzzles, with many piece and edge styles, a numbered tray and a free multicolor 3MF. For a finished topographic puzzle of a hike or summit, Terrain 6 carves your trail into the terrain and cuts it into interlocking pieces as a Bambu-ready 3MF; it has a free tier, and satellite colors and engraved bases are on its paid plans.

For a desk model of a ski mountain or summit with its name on it, Open Ski Model adds a beveled plinth with the place name and a north arrow engraved into the rim, on a rectangle, circle or hexagon. Inside the US it uses USGS elevation data, typically 10 m and sometimes 1 m, and it exports STEP next to the STL. It is free, open source and needs no account. Sizes are set in inches, the default 6 inch model came out at about 84 MB in our check, and a small maker mark is engraved underneath unless you switch it off.

For anywhere in Japan, GSI Maps 3D is the official map viewer of the country’s national mapping agency. It builds the relief from the agency’s own survey elevation data and downloads it as an STL, free and without an account. The menus are only in Japanese, and outside Japan it falls back to much coarser global data.

To print the whole planet, Relief Globes makes an Earth globe with raised land and a sunken seafloor from NOAA’s ETOPO 2022 elevation data. Land and ocean come out as two STLs that fit together for a two-color print, and you can split the globe into hemispheres with alignment holes that print without supports. It is free, open source and needs no account, but the files are large: the ocean STL of the default 120 mm globe was about 19 MB.

Cities and buildings

For a city with its buildings, use Map2Model. You draw an area on a map and export a city or terrain model, including a multicolor 3MF with separate colors for buildings, roads and water. It is free for personal use.

Mini Skyline is free with no account, watermark or export cap. It builds buildings, roads, water, parks and terrain in your browser, adds contour lines or a GPX route if you want them, and exports a 3MF with each feature type as its own colored part, so you can give each one its own filament on an AMS or MMU. There is no STL export, and the long list of settings takes a while to learn.

For more detailed buildings, 3DCityLoader uses the official 3D city models published for places such as Berlin, Hamburg, Switzerland and New York City instead of the OpenStreetMap blocks most tools use. Elsewhere it falls back to OpenStreetMap. Where the Add terrain option is offered (it is not yet available in every region), tick it to stand the buildings on a base, then download an STL. Small areas are free: up to 0.5 km² on the worldwide map and 0.1 km² in the official-data regions. Bigger areas show a price in euros after a free preview, and some newer regions, such as the Netherlands and France, ask you to register before exporting.

For the Netherlands, NederPrint is free with no account. It builds the buildings and terrain from the official Dutch 3D data and adds its own detailed models of 337 landmarks, such as the Dom Tower and the Euromast. The 3MF has one object per building, colored per class and merged down to as many colors as your printer can handle, and Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer open it with the filament slots filled in. Beta options cut the map into jigsaw pieces or split a large area into tiles. The site is in Dutch only, and before each download you tick that the file is for personal, non-commercial use.

Paid options produce polished multicolor city blocks if you prefer to pay for a ready result. PrintPal’s map generator is included with a PrintPal subscription, and the Pro plan is $10 a month. City3DPrint charges per model: $14.99 or €9.99 a city, with a free 3D preview before you pay. Maps3D charges a flat $5 a map, or $20 a month for unlimited exports, whatever the size of the area, and adds print extras such as a titled frame and splitting big maps into tiles that fit your bed.

How to 3D print a Strava or GPX route

1. Export the GPX file. On the Strava website, open the activity, click the More (…) menu and choose Export GPX. Strava only offers this on the website, not in the app (Strava’s export help page). Other tracking apps, such as Garmin Connect, have a similar GPX export.
2. Load it into a route generator. GPXtruder is free, needs no account and turns the track into a raised elevation ribbon: on the map, stretched into a straight profile, or wrapped into a ring. GPXTrack.xyz draws the route as a raised line on a base with a title plate, and the file never leaves your browser. To put the route on real terrain, TopoTrail builds the landscape around one or more GPX tracks on a hexagon, square, octagon or circle base, with lakes, rivers and buildings if you want them, free and without an account. TrailMark3D also puts a searched place or a GPX route on terrain, and adds seas, lakes and rivers as their own colored part, optional landcover and contour lines, and a jigsaw split, all kept separate in one 3MF. The preview is free, but downloading needs a free account, and the free plan gives 5 models a day for personal use only. Map2Model and TerraPrinter can also emboss a GPX track onto the landscape as its own colored line.
3. Set the vertical exaggeration. At true scale a hilly run still looks almost flat. Raise GPXtruder’s vertical exaggeration factor, the maximum track height in GPXTrack.xyz or TopoTrail’s height scale until the climbs stand out in the preview.
4. Download and print. GPXtruder gives you an STL, GPXTrack.xyz a 3MF, TopoTrail a ZIP of OBJ files with the terrain and each trail as separate parts, and TrailMark3D an STL per part or a 3MF with the colors kept separate. GPXTrack.xyz’s colors are for the preview only, so assign filaments in your slicer if you want the route and the base in two colors.

Maps you can feel

For a tactile street map, use Touch Mapper. It makes maps for blind and low-vision people: type an address and download a map with raised streets and buildings. It is free to print yourself.

The Moon, Mars and the stars

To print the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto or one of seven more worlds, use OrbitStudio. It builds their terrain from NASA data: you frame a crater or landing site, or pick one of 454 landmarks, and get a snap-together jigsaw puzzle or a solid ornament, in a circle, square or hexagon. Generating a terrain and previewing it in 3D is free and needs no account; a download costs $4.99 for one model, or $9.99 a month for unlimited downloads. Full disclosure: we make OrbitStudio. TerraPrinter and TerraPuzzle also print 22 other worlds, from the Moon and Mars to Pluto and Titan, for free.

3D Moon Map is a free viewer of NASA lunar data that exports any view as an STL. Moon2STL, from the maker of Terrain2STL, works like its Earth sibling: drag a box over a crater and download a square STL tile. Its 2005 elevation data has one sample about every 1.9 km at the equator, so small craters disappear. For a wall of Moon tiles, MoonToPrint cuts square tiles from NASA’s LRO LOLA elevation data (about 118 m per pixel) and lays them out as one tile or a 2x2, 3x3, plus or round set, with a keyhole wall mount and an optional standard or LED frame. It is a free open beta with no account, but its terms allow private, non-commercial use only and do not let you share the files. Mini Skyline also makes free terrain of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Ceres and Vesta as a 3MF.

For the night sky, the MakerLab Star Map Generator and our own OrbitStudio Sky print the stars as they were over a place on a date you choose.

Minecraft worlds

For a Minecraft world instead of a real place, mc-print prints a zone of your own Java Edition world in four colors. You open the world folder in the browser, where it stays on your computer, draw a zone of up to 400 blocks per side, and every block is mapped to one of four filaments. The 3MF is a project for the Snapmaker U1; for other printers there is a zip with one STL per filament, which you load as parts of one object and color in your slicer. It is free, open source and needs no account.

Tips for great terrain prints

• Exaggerate the height. 1.5x to 3x is normal for hills; mountains need less.
• Print at 0.12 to 0.16 mm layers so slopes look smooth instead of stepped.
• Use a matte filament to hide layer lines, or a multicolor setup to paint water blue.
• Add a base of 2 to 3 mm so thin coastal areas don’t break.

Frequently asked questions

How do I 3D print a map of a real place?

Open a terrain generator such as Terrain2STL or TouchTerrain, draw a box over the area you want, set the size and height exaggeration, and download the STL. For cities with buildings, use a tool that reads OpenStreetMap data, such as Map2Model or TerraPrinter.

How do I 3D print my Strava or GPX route?

Export the activity as a GPX file (on the Strava website: the More menu, then Export GPX), load it into GPXtruder or GPXTrack.xyz, raise the vertical exaggeration (the track height in GPXTrack.xyz) until the climbs stand out, and download the STL or 3MF. To put the route on real terrain, load the GPX into TopoTrail, or emboss it in Map2Model or TerraPrinter.

Why does my terrain print look flat?

At true scale, most landscapes are very flat compared with their width. Increase the vertical exaggeration (often 1.5x to 3x) so hills and valleys stand out.

Can I print the Moon?

Yes. OrbitStudio builds Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto and terrain of seven more worlds from NASA data as puzzles or ornaments, and 3D Moon Map exports any view of the Moon as an STL.

What is the best filament for terrain prints?

Matte PLA hides layer lines on slopes and looks natural. Grays and earth tones work well; multicolor prints can separate water, land and buildings.