MAP2MESH
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Map2Mesh free?
The core of it is: drawing an area, generating a model, and exporting STL or 3MF. That stays free for as long as this project runs — see the story on the about page. Other things may eventually sit alongside that core loop, but generating and exporting a model does not change.
Which cities does it work in?
Anywhere OpenStreetMap has building and road data, which in practice is most of the inhabited world — dense cities come out more detailed than sparsely mapped rural areas. Terrain comes from a global elevation dataset, so relief works everywhere, coastlines and mountains included.
Should I export STL or 3MF?
3MF if your printer or slicer supports multicolor (Bambu Lab AMS, Prusa MMU, and similar) — it keeps buildings, roads, water, and terrain as separate materials. STL if you just want one body in one color.
Does it work with Bambu Lab's AMS?
Yes. Exports are capped at four color layers on purpose, matching a standard AMS's four slots, and 3MF is the format Bambu Studio reads natively.
Is my data private?
The coordinates of the box you draw are sent to our own server so it can fetch the OpenStreetMap and terrain data for that area — someone has to ask for the data on your behalf. Nothing else leaves your browser: the geometry, the mesh, the finished file are all built and kept on your machine. See privacy for the full picture.
Why does the preview look rougher than the exported file?
The 3D view you orbit around is decimated for speed, built to move smoothly on your GPU rather than to be printed. Export always reads the full, undecimated geometry, so what you see while orbiting has nothing to do with what actually gets exported.
What if my area doesn't build a good model?
It happens — badly tagged buildings, a coastline that doesn't close cleanly, a sliver of a shape that can't be made valid. Map2Mesh repairs what it can and drops the rest, and tells you the count of each rather than silently leaving something broken in the file.
Where does the data come from?
Buildings and roads: OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Terrain: the Copernicus GLO-30 global elevation model. See attribution for the full credit.