“NYC Terrain in 3D: From LiDAR to Printed Model”

When I first looked at New York City’s open LiDAR data, it felt impossible to use. Gigabytes of dense point clouds, endless tiles with strange index numbers — the kind of raw data that feels more like static than something you can actually design with.

But as an architecture student, I didn’t just want to stare at the data on a screen — I wanted to make it physical. A model you can touch, rotate, study, and use in studio to test design ideas. That became the goal of this project: turning messy, overwhelming LiDAR data into a clean, scaled 3D printed site model.

This instructable walks through that journey. You’ll see how to:

1. Navigate the LiDAR indexes to find only the tiles you need.
2. Use CloudCompare to filter out just the ground and water points (so the city starts making sense).
3. Save your project properly so nothing gets lost.
4. Prep everything so it’s ready for modeling, editing, and finally 3D printing.

The final result is a physical city block you can hold in your hands — something that bridges data and design, and makes abstract information into a tool for creativity.

(Note: While my end product is a 3D print, this instructable focuses on the data prep side, not on printer settings.)

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my Design 7 instructor, Professor Christopher Stienon, and to the Architecture Department at City Tech for their teaching, guidance, and contributions that supported this project.

Computer with stable internet connection and enough free storage (250–350 GB recommended)

External hard drive (optional, for backup/archive)

Software:

1. CloudCompare (free, open-source)
2. Rhino (or other 3D modeling software you use for cleanup/modeling)
3. Cura (or your preferred slicer)

3D printer (FDM, with ~12"x9"x11" build volume or smaller sections to assemble)

PLA filament (black & white used here)

Acrylic sheet + spacers/bolts (for base plate)

Basic tools: screwdriver, sandpaper/glue (for assembly if needed)

GOAL

Download and extract the NYC LiDAR tiles to your local disk, then archive them safely to an external drive so they’re ready for processing without risk of corruption.

WHAT YOU NEED

1. Stable internet.
2. At least 250 GB, but 350 GB recommended, on your local disk.
3. External hard drive. (Optional)
4. ~4-8 hours download, ~2-4 hours extraction, ~1-4 hours transfer.

ACTIONS

1. Find the dataset

Navigate to NYC Open Data, search “Topobathymetric LiDAR Data (2017),” open the dataset page, and skim the description.

Note: Refer to the images 1,2,3,4,5. Read notes. Open links.

2. Download dataset

Scroll down the dataset page to Attachments, click TopoBathymetric_Classified_LAZ.zip, choose “Save As” to start the download, and save it to your internal drive (not external) while monitoring the process.

Note: Refer to the images 6,7,8. Read notes.

WARNING

1. SSD vs external: downloading/extracting straight to an external drive has a higher chance of corruption, it takes longer time to download or extract. Do it locally first, then copy.
2. Power & sleep: interrupts during download or extraction can break the ZIP or stop the process. Keep the machine awake and powered.

3. Extract dataset ZIP

When the ZIP download is finished, extract it on your internal drive, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the contents, and then delete the ZIP folder.

Note: Refer to the images 9, 10. Read notes.

4. (Optional) Archive dataset

You don’t need every file at all times—since the dataset is huge and time-consuming to download, manually copy and paste it to your external hard drive to avoid corruption and only pull the files you need for future projects.

You did it! That was the heavy lifting — downloading and unpacking all those files. Soon the fun part begins! Next, we will get to actually dive in and start shaping this data into something you can see and touch.

GOAL

Match your LAZ files to their exact locations on the map, so you know which tiles to use for your project.

WHAT YOU NEED

1. Extracted LAZ folder from Step 1.
2. NYS Orthos Online Map.

ACTIONS

1. Familiarize with files

Open your extracted folder and notice that each LAZ file has a number — this number matches a tile on the map.

Note: Refer to image 1. Read notes.

2. Open Orthos Online

Go to the Orthos map and zoom into your area of interest. In this instructable we’ll focus on DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Note: Refer to images 2,3. Read notes.

3. Option 1 – Full Info

Click the Tools icon (top right).

Select the Layers icon (stacked papers).

Expand LiDAR Indexes, check 2017.

Go back to Tools, choose Get Info (circle “i”).

Click your map area. In the info window (bottom left), scroll to NYC TopoBathymetric2017 LiDAR Index.

Copy the number under FILENAME — that’s the matching LAZ tile in your folder.

Note: Refer to images 4-11. Read notes.

4. Option 2 – Shortcut

On the left-middle of the map, open the sidebar (arrow tab).

Go to LiDAR Results.

Click Current View to display tiles for the visible map.

Zoom in until you see tile numbers, then match them directly to the LAZ file names in your folder.

Note: Refer to images 12-15. Read notes.

Nice work! You just cracked the code behind those random file names — now each one is a little piece of the city you can actually point to on the map. From here on, you’re not guessing, you’re in control. Next, we’ll start turning those tiles into something you can really see and work with.

GOAL

Bring your LAZ tiles into CloudCompare, explore the point clouds, and filter them so you only keep what matters for this project: ground and water.

WHAT YOU NEED

1. CloudCompare installed from here.
2. Your chosen LAZ tiles copied into a dedicated project folder (e.g., “Dumbo East > LAZ Files”)
3. ~30–60 minutes depending on file size and your computer’s speed

ACTIONS

1. Organize your files.

Identify indexes of your tiles and copy the LAZ tiles you need into your working folder on your internal drive. Manual copy avoids corruption (external drive transfers can be buggy).

Note: refer to Step 2. Refer to images 2,3,4. Read notes.

2. Open the files.

Launch CloudCompare → File > Open → select your LAZ tiles → click Apply All in the LAS import window. When the “Global shift/scale” message appears, always click NO. Repeat for each tile until they load.

Note: Refer to images 5-11. Read notes.

3. Save your project.

Before doing any filtering, create a subfolder inside your project folder (e.g., “CloudCompare”), then go to File > Save Project in CloudCompare. This way, even if the program crashes, you won’t have to reload everything from scratch.

Note: Refer to the image 12. Read notes.

4. Switch to classification view.

In the DB Tree panel, click on a tile → scroll down in the Properties panel to “Scalar Fields” → change the dropdown from Intensity to Classification. Do this for all tiles so you can work with their categories.

Note: Refer to images 13-17. Read notes.

5. Filter ground points.

Select all tiles → Edit > Scalar Fields > Filter by Value → enter “2” to “2” = Ground → click Export. This creates new layers with just the ground points.

Note: Refer to images 18-24.

6. Filter water points.

Go back to the original tiles (not the ground layers) → select them → Edit > Scalar Fields > Filter by Value → enter “9” to “9” = Water → Export. This gives you separate layers with only water points.

Note: Refer to images 18-24.

7. Save again.

Once both ground and water are separated, save your project again to lock in your filtered layers.

Note: Always save your work.

Congrats! You just turned a mountain of raw city-wide LiDAR data into clean, project-ready ground and water layers. From here, the clouds of points finally start making sense—and soon, you’ll be turning them into real 3D surfaces you can edit, model, or even print.

GOAL

Turn your filtered point clouds (ground + water) into meshes you can actually use in Rhino or other software.

WHAT YOU NEED

1. CloudCompare with your project already filtered and saved
2. At least one set of isolated ground/water layers
3. ~20–40 minutes depending on how detailed your mesh is

ACTIONS

1. Merge layers (optional).

If you want all ground or water tiles combined: select them → Edit > Merge → choose “YES” for Original Cloud Index. This keeps their correct coordinates.

Note: Refer to images 1-4. Read notes.

2. Create the mesh.

Select a layer → Edit > Mesh > Delaunay 2.5D (best fitting plane).

In the pop-up, set “Max Edge Length” (I used 8 feet, but you can go bigger if your computer struggles). Click "OK" and let CloudCompare generate a surface.

Note: Refer to images 5-7. Read notes.

3. Export the mesh.

Select the mesh → File > Save → pick “OBJ cloud or mesh (.obj)” → Save. Wait until the writing is complete before moving the file.

Note: Refer to images 8-10. Read notes.

4. Keep things organized.

Save into a new subfolder inside your project (e.g., “Meshes”) so your workflow stays clean.

WRAP-UP

Congrats! You just transformed raw point clouds into actual surfaces. Now they’re ready to head into Rhino (or whatever tool you like) for modeling, editing, or prepping for 3D printing.