SoaringMap by Pro3D / DATA & MATERIALS

Real data.
Thoughtfully made.

Flight and scale

The required IGC provides the 3D track and GNSS altitude. Distance and speed come from the linked WeGlide flight’s Free result; flight time uses its WeGlide takeoff and landing times. IGC track length and recording duration are not used as flight statistics. Missing or unavailable WeGlide results remain blank. You can edit the inscription. Horizontal scale follows the geographical span and model width. Vertical exaggeration applies equally to terrain and flight. At 1× both scales match. No independent flight altitude offset is added. Below sea level, terrain and flight share an adjusted base that preserves their relative elevations. Altitude datum and terrain intersections require review before printing.

Four-colour landscape

The default colours use ESA WorldCover 2021 v200 cartographic land cover, generalized into forest; cropland, grass and low vegetation; bare ground, built-up areas, snow and ice; and water. These are historical mapped areas, not imagery from your flight date. Small features are simplified. Where WorldCover is missing or unavailable, ESA CCI / C3S 2022 provides coarser fallback classes; Antarctic land also uses a coastline mask. The model records its actual sources and resolution. If reliable data cannot be prepared, loading reports an error and offers a retry rather than inventing vegetation. Elevation bands are available only as an explicit alternative.

ESA WorldCover 2021. © ESA WorldCover project 2021. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA WorldCover consortium. CC BY 4.0.

Worldwide terrain

The generator supports worldwide crops, including the date line (180°), polar regions and terrain below sea level. Representative areas on every continent, coasts, islands and open ocean have been tested. Copernicus DEM is the primary elevation source, with Mapzen Terrain Tiles and NOAA ETOPO as fallbacks. Actual sources and resolution depend on the location, crop size and availability. Polar and fallback data can be less detailed. Missing ocean tiles are checked against the official WorldCover catalogue; unclassified offshore water is filled only where bathymetry corroborates it. A small mountain crop with strong vertical exaggeration can exceed printable height; reduce the height factor or widen the crop.

Reliable previews

A small private copy of NOAA ETOPO and ESA CCI global reference data supports preliminary previews when detailed sources are slow or unavailable. A reference preview is clearly labelled and upgrades automatically while detailed data is loading. Its source resolution is coarser than the final model; checkout and production exports require detailed terrain. Your uploaded flight and design remain available if you need to retry. The reference files are verified against fixed checksums and stored separately from the bounded cache. External sources are still required for previously unseen high-resolution areas.

Sizes and custom commissions

Standard tabletop and wall maps are available from 160 to 300 mm. The maximum map size made in one piece is 300 mm. Larger maps can be made to order as an assembly of printed sections. Enter your preferred width and height under Custom dimensions; no price is calculated automatically. We confirm proportions, panel layout, mounting and a personal quotation before production. The custom 3D view follows the requested outer width and height. Terrain and flight retain a uniform geographic scale, with the selected outline cropping the landscape. Panel divisions and mounting are reviewed separately before production.

A4 frame and paper

The A4 backing measures 210 × 297 mm. The preview frame retains those outer dimensions, covering the paper edges, with a 180 mm model that can be repositioned on the backing. Landscape crop controls pan and zoom the terrain and track together within the model while its outer dimensions remain fixed. Flight sections outside the outline are cropped. Framed models have no terrain plaque: their inscription is printed on paper around the model. Text scales up to 250%. A vector PDF is automatically saved with the order for the studio. The terrain has no extra perimeter rim. The model placement guide is not included in the PDF.

From preview to production

Standard models use the same printed-part generator for the configurator and 3MF. The 601 × 601 elevation grid does not improve the accuracy of the original elevation source. Physical colours vary with lighting and printing. Filament assignments, supports and intersections are checked before production. Custom sizes require a separately reviewed production layout.

Material

Made with PLA filament.

Sources and attribution

geoBoundaries CGAZ ADM0 · William & Mary geoLab · CC BY 4.0. Country boundaries adapted for display and printing.

Copernicus DEM GLO-30 / GLO-90 · NOAA ETOPO 2022 · ESA CCI / C3S Land Cover. Actual sources and resolution are recorded with each model.

Mapzen Terrain Tiles on AWS · Terrain attribution. Elevation data are resampled to the model scale; land-cover classes determine the default colours.

ArcticDEM terrain data DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under National Science Foundation awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736; Australia terrain data © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017; Austria terrain data © offene Daten Österreichs – Digitales Geländemodell (DGM) Österreich; Canada terrain data contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada; Europe terrain data produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union - EU-DEM layers; Global ETOPO1 terrain data U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Mexico terrain data source: INEGI, Continental relief, 2016; New Zealand terrain data Copyright 2011 Crown copyright (c) Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Government (All rights reserved); Norway terrain data © Kartverket; United Kingdom terrain data © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved; United States 3DEP (formerly NED) and global GMTED2010 and SRTM terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Flight logbooks

Link a WeGlide flight to import its publicly available statistics. SkyLines and SeeYou Cloud links are saved as references. An IGC is required in all cases.