San Francisco 3D Map

Okay, so I created this completely awesome 3D map of the San Francisco Peninsula. The whole thing. This took me around a month and a half, which is totally longer than I had planned. Seriously, I thought this was going to be a quick little project—just get some data, throw it together, and voila, complete. Yeah… no. It was a lot more complicated than I expected, with all sorts of random problems popping up at every turn. But hey, voila! All that effort, and I think it worked out okay. So, sit back and enjoy!If you're thinking of making your own 3D map, here's a quick summary of how I did it. It's not super detailed (because believe me, you'll catch on to the details as you go along), but this should give you a sense of the overall process. Step 1: Get Some Elevation DataFirst, visit the USGS Lidar Explorer website (it's a government website with free elevation data). Look up the place you'd like to map—in my example, the San Francisco Peninsula—and choose it. Th