This is a STL file made from the Bathymetry of Australia.

The map height has to be exaggerated for 3D printing. If the height was scale proportionally to the longitude / latitude scale (10cm wide for 5500km), the map would only be 0.14mm tall. That's the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Map to scale:

• Horizontal = From West to East, the map is approximately 5500km.
• Vertical = From the deepest ocean to the tallest mountain, this map is only 8km tall.

Greyscale image scale:

• Black = -6000m
• White = 2000m

The coastline is exactly at 2/3 of the total height.

This is how I created the STL file:

1. I created a greyscale image from the Bathymetry, using GeoServer. This step can also be done using QGis or ArcMap.
2. I created a STL file from the greyscale image using the png23d library.

Sources:

• Bathymetry: http://eatlas.org.au/data/uuid/80301676-97fb-4bdf-b06c-e961e5c0cb0b
• png23d: http://kyllikki.github.io/png23d/