Minimalist City Map Lithophane Lamps

Changelog

• 17.02.2025: initial upload of the collection

• 20.02.2025: complete overhaul of all maps, changing the projection to EPSG:3857

• 20.02.2025: addition of Stockholm, Istanbul and Melbourne

• 21.02.2025: addition of Chicago, Paris, San Francisco, and maps of GTA V and Middle Earth

• 22.02.2025: experiments with inverse maps (see last image). Please give me feedback if you'd like to see inverse maps.

• 26.02.2025: addition of Toronto, Hamburg, Prague, Shiraz, Shenzhen and Hong Kong

• 04.03.2025: added a tutorial to create your own map lamp

• 05.03.2025: changed the rotation of the lamp bases to align the wire outlet with the rear of the lamp and added custom text lids

• 11.03.2025: added Erlangen, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Kyiv, Pittsburgh and San Antonio

• 21.03.2025: added Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando, St. Augustine, Rotonda and St. Petersburg (Florida)

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Your city as a Lithophane

While I continuously add new major cities to this collection, I may not have done your city yet. You can comment your city below and if I have enough free time, I may or may not create a Lithophane model for it. 

You may also create your own Lithophane! I uploaded a tutorial, detailing my workflow in creating these lamps. You can find it here: https://makerworld.com/de/models/1174521-minimalist-city-map-lithophane-lamps-tutorial 

It is published with a Public Domain license. So you can upload your own creation under your own terms and even use it commercially!

If you don't want to create an entirely new model, but only want to add minor changes or a personal touch to an already existing upload here (different label, inverse map, …) feel free to ask for high resolution map renderings. I'll gladly share them!

 

Introduction

Following the popularity and success of my Solar System Lithophane Planet Lamp Collection - 205mm³ and Solar System Lithophane Planet Lamp Collection - 75mm³ models, I decided to create further Lithophane lamps. This time, I am focussing on maps. 

 

The Minimalist City Map Lithophane Lamps represent urban geography using OpenStreetMap data. Rendered and processed to highlight street networks and spatial structures, they provide a tangible 3D representation of urban features. The lithophane technique encodes geographic data into a relief, making geograpical features, city layouts and infrastructure patterns accessible for education and analysis.

 

All models (except for Fantasy Maps) included in this upload were created using OpenStreetMap data. The minimalist map renderings are original works, created with QGIS. The lithophane generation itself was done with lithophanemaker. The original creators of the Fantasy Maps I used are mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

 

If you like my work, please consider supporting me. Your support will help me to make more models available for free. https://ko-fi.com/fritzpeppone. If you like to use my models commercially, please obtain a commercial license on Makerworld.

MembershipBecome a Member to use my models commercially!

 

Requirements

All lamps have a size of ~ 105mm x 105mm x 174mm, making them printable on almost all printers, even the Bambu A1 Mini. Each lamp requires ~130g of filament (preferably PLA or PLA+) and around 12h of print time.

 

You have to print a city lamp shade of your choice, a lamp base and a lid to cover the top part of the lamp shade. These three parts are connected with a M100x2 metric thread. For now, the only illumination option is the Maker's Supply LED Lamp Kit 001.

 

Print Settings

There are only a few settings you should tweak in the slicer to print the lamps. 

• Print in PLA or PLA+

• Recommended layer height: 0.16mm

• Use the Arachne Perimeter Generator for more precise printing with better details

• Set wall count to 5-6 to obtain a solid lamp

• Set seam position to Back (hiding it at the rear of the lamp)

• No brim required. If you struggle with adhesion, use Inner Brim to avoid visible defects.

• No Support required! The lamps print perfectly fine without support. Your slicer may complain about overhanging perimeters but trust me, briding works fine!

Be aware, that slicing and printing may take a very long time. The STL files can take several minutes to slice. 

 

For Bambu Studio users: Bambu Studio seems to struggle with the Arachne Perimeter Generator. If you are unable to slice a lamp with Arachne, use the Classic Perimeter Generator.

 

Filament

Filament matters. A lot! Depending on your filament choice, your lamp may have more or less contrast or a warmer or cooler color temperature. You can also change the outcome by choosing light sources with different wattage or color temperature. The picture below illustrates this:

All of the four Panels above were printed with different white PLA/PLA+ filaments but illuminated with the same 1W LED bulb. 

 

Before starting a multi-hour print, I recommend printing a Calibration Panel to test how your print will turn out. You are also by no means limited to white lights and filaments. Check the makes below to get inspired what color and light choices other makers made.

 

Map Lamps

The list below contains all map lamps currently available, ordered by continent. Depicted is the minimalist map used to create the lithophane. Refer to the title image to see how a map image corresponds to a lithophane lamp.

• Currently, all lithophane lamps are only provided as 3MF files. In the future, the STL source files will be added as separate models and linked in the list below!

Africa
Cairo
Americas
New York	Brasilia
Chicago	San Francisco
Toronto	Austin
Dallas	Houston
Pittsburgh	San Antonio
St. Petersburg (Florida)	Rotonda
St. Augustine	Orlando
Jacksonville	Miami
Asia
Singapore	Tokyo
Shenzhen	Hong Kong
Shiraz
Europe
London	Venice
Amsterdam	Stockholm
Istanbul	Paris
Prague	Hamburg
Erlangen	Kyiv
Oceania and Australia
Sydney	Melbourne
Fantasy Maps
Middle Earth	GTA V

 

Lamp Bases and Lids

Printing the map of your choice is only a part of creating your own lithophane lamp. You will additionally need a Base that contains your light source and a Lid for the top of your map. All Bases and Lids currently available are listed below.

• For now, there is only one Lamp Base (in three different sizes) available. 

• The lid is currently only available in it's basic, blank style. As shown on the title image, the Lid can also be a lithophane. I am currently figuring out the correct angle of the text to properly align it with the front. Custom lids will be added soon.

• Currently, all bases and lids are only provided as 3MF files. In the future, the STL and F3D source files will be added as separate models and linked in the list below!

LED Lamp Kit 001 Base	Blank Lid
The LED Lamp Kit 001 Base comes in three different heights: 10mm, 30mm and 60mm. Simply insert the LED Lamp Kit in the base, guide the cable through the bottom hole and through the cable channel. The base features the same M100x2 thread as the map lamps.	A simple screw-on cover featuring the M100x2 thread of the map lamps. There are two print profiles online. A customizable and a default profile. The customizable profile can only be customized in Bambu Studio. Switch to Objects and right click on the text you want to change. Change the type of the text from negative part to part. Bambu Studio only permits text changes of parts, not of negative parts. After you customized the text, switch from part back to negative part again and slice your file.

 

Assembly

Base, Map Lamp and Lid are connected with a simple M100x2 thread. If you experienced a bit of stringing (especially possible for the nut-threads of the map lamps), clean up your threads carefully by cutting loose strings with a knife.

When threading parts together, make sure not to apply pressure to the thread areas. If you deform the threads, they may bind. I recommend to hold the map at the opposite end of where you are screwing your part in. Other than that, assembly and disassembly of the lamps is straightforward.

 

Your city as a map lamp

During the time of the Geography Studies Contest, I plan to add at least two new map lamps per week. If you have suggestions, please leave a comment below. I will only create lamps for major cities though. If your city has already been commentd, upvote the comment. That way I can see what maps are highly demanded and prioritize accordingly.

 

After the contest period, I will open source all source files and a detailed explanation on how to create your own lamps.

 

Other models

If you are interested in Lithophane lamps, consider checking out my other models. Click the images below for the respective models or check my profile.

 

Acknowledgements

A big shoutout and thanks to:

• OpenStreetMap for providing open source map data

• QGIS for providing an open source and easy to use map rendering software

• lithophanemaker for providing an easy to use tool to create lithophanes

• the unknown author of the original middle earth map (I found it here) and J. R. R. Tolkien 

• Rockstar Games for their map of GTA V

Without access to the tools and resources above, I would not have been able to create this collection.