Mini Skyline vs other 3D map tools

Compared to other web based map makers

  • Mini Skyline

    Price and how it is paid for
    Free, no account, no export limit; optional Buy Me a Coffee donations
    Where the model is built
    In your browser, on your own computer
    Open the map

  • TerraPrinter

    TerraPrinter has been turning maps into printable models since March 2025, more than a year before Mini Skyline began, and its early work helped shape this space. It is free, and its maker pays for the map and elevation servers out of pocket. Support TerraPrinter on Buy Me a Coffee

    Price and how it is paid for
    Free, no ads; optional free account; Buy Me a Coffee donations
    Where the model is built
    On your own device
    Visit site

  • Printed Canyon

    Price and how it is paid for
    Pay what you want from $0; no account
    Where the model is built
    On its servers, which download the data for your area
    Visit site

  • Maps3D

    Price and how it is paid for
    Free preview; $5 per map or $20 a month; teams from $35 a month
    Where the model is built
    In your browser
    Visit site

  • MapsTo3D

    Price and how it is paid for
    Free: no account, no watermark, no subscription, no export limit
    Where the model is built
    In your browser
    Visit site

  • GeoFilament

    Price and how it is paid for
    Pay once per model: €3 up to 25 cm, €5 up to 50 cm, €8 over 50 cm; no subscription
    Where the model is built
    In your browser
    Visit site

  • City3DPrint

    Price and how it is paid for
    $14.99 or €9.99 per model; 20% off one model from a collection, half price for a whole collection
    Where the model is built
    On its servers: processed in Frankfurt, generated files deleted after 7 days
    Visit site

Feature by feature

Feature Mini Skyline TerraPrinter Printed Canyon Maps3D MapsTo3D GeoFilament City3DPrint
Surface and land types 17 land types on terrain maps (forest, grass, sand, rock, glacier, wetland, farmland and more); parks, forest, beaches and golf greens in cities; 2 to 12 height bands on every world Source Five land-cover colours (forest, grass, rock, sand and glacier), plus parks in their own colour Source One greenery layer in city models: parks, woods and gardens Source Land cover layer: forest, grass, farmland, wetland, sand, ice, rock and urban, raised or recessed Source Land cover as separate colour parts: woodland, grass, farmland, wetland, sand, rock, ice and built-up ground Source Parks and woodland, printed in green; woodland as thousands of rounded tree canopies Source Not mentioned
Surface textures 17 printable textures (cobblestone, roof tiles, farmland rows, sand ripple and more) or your own height map, set per land, road or building type Source Colours from satellite or other map imagery, reduced to 2 to 12 filaments Source Not mentioned Map imagery as a texture in glTF, OBJ and Rhino, and in 3MF for full-colour printers Source Satellite, topographic map, street, shaded relief or contour imagery on textured exports Source Rippling water and bumpy woodland you can feel Source Not mentioned
Commercial use Allowed, no fee or revenue share, with a credit line; every export records its data sources Source Allowed, with OpenStreetMap and elevation credits Source Allowed for personal, educational or commercial use, under the data licences Source Allowed, private or commercial, resale included; credit the imagery source Source No ownership claimed; credit OpenStreetMap and the elevation sources; Esri imagery needs an ArcGIS account for commercial use Source Personal use only; selling prints or files needs a separate commercial licence, on request Source Not allowed: personal, non-commercial use only; prints and files cannot be sold without written permission Source
Price and how it is paid for Free, no account, no export limit; optional Buy Me a Coffee donations Source Free, no ads; optional free account; Buy Me a Coffee donations Source Pay what you want from $0; no account Source Free preview; $5 per map or $20 a month; teams from $35 a month Source Free: no account, no watermark, no subscription, no export limit Source Pay once per model: €3 up to 25 cm, €5 up to 50 cm, €8 over 50 cm; no subscription Source $14.99 or €9.99 per model; 20% off one model from a collection, half price for a whole collection Source
Trees, bushes and rocks Over 90 tree models, including 24 named species from six regions, each with a compact version; over 60 bush and 50 rock models Source Low-poly trees on parks and green areas; number of models not given Source Not mentioned Trees from satellite detection, OpenStreetMap and forest fill, combined freely, in four styles Source Trees fill mapped woods and parks, as canopy blobs, pines or trunk and top Source Thousands of rounded tree canopies over woodland Source Not mentioned
Lane markings Lane lines, centre lines, crosswalks and stop lines, plus sidewalks; off by default Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Crosswalks and sidewalks as road features Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Measured building heights Laser surveys in 97 city areas, Google Open Buildings in 200 cities, and official building records in 10 European countries, on top of OpenStreetMap and Overture Source OpenStreetMap heights where they are mapped Source Recorded heights from Overture and OpenStreetMap; about two storeys where none is recorded Source Overture Maps footprints and heights worldwide; buildings from national surveys in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and 300 Japanese municipalities; France in beta Source OpenStreetMap heights or floor counts where entered; a default height elsewhere Source Lidar or survey heights where OpenStreetMap has none, in Denmark, France, the Netherlands, England, Flanders and Brussels, five German states, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Czechia Source Mapped heights from OpenStreetMap where available, estimates elsewhere Source
3D model editor Move, resize, hide or draw buildings, edit roofs, redraw roads, paint terrain, place trees and recolour, with undo Source Draw your own buildings, then move, rotate, resize or change their height Source Not mentioned Resize, crop to a shape, show or hide layers and place markers on the 3D map, with undo and redo Source Change size, height, shape, base, frame and lettering in a live preview Source Mark your house on the model and it prints in its own colour Source Not mentioned
Desktop app App for Windows, Mac and Linux that builds bigger models (500 km² cities, 2,500 km² projects) and keeps working without our servers Source No: runs in the browser, nothing to install Source A web-based tool; no desktop app mentioned Source No: runs in the browser, nothing to install Source No: runs in the browser, nothing to install Source No: runs in the browser, nothing to install Source Not mentioned
Window detail on buildings Printable window grids, strips or fins added to building walls, sized to what the print can show, with density, depth and an accent colour Source Glass-window facades on buildings you draw yourself Source No: no facades, buildings are simple blocks Source Not mentioned Buildings are prisms with flat, window-less faces Source Not mentioned Not mentioned
Largest model and tile Cities: 50 km² per model, 25 km² per tile, 500 km² per project. Terrain: no area limit. Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus: 1,000,000 km² per model or tile Source Up to 120 km across on Earth, 2,000 km on Mars and 1,000 km on the Moon Source City features under 5 km across; terrain up to a whole country or US state Source No size given, but an area can be too wide to build; tiles are sized to your printer bed Source Terrain about 2,500 km across; buildings, roads and railways up to 500 km², at most 40,000 buildings Source Fixed 1:5,000 scale: up to 5 km across, on a 4 × 4 grid of 250 mm plates Source Up to 3 km across; 1 to 2 km suggested for dense city centres Source
Trees that fit the place Each real tree takes the shape of what grows there, like palms in Miami or spruce in the Black Forest Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Ready-made 3D models Over 3,500 landmark models (towers, stadiums, airports and more) and 8 bridge models, placed at real size; each prints as its own named part Source No landmark models mentioned; you can draw your own buildings Source No: buildings are simple blocks, not detailed replicas Source Simple pin, flag, cylinder or cube markers, or an empty socket to plug in your own landmark Source No landmark models mentioned; landmarks come from their real footprints and heights Source Monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal drawn in real metres, printed as part of the buildings Source No landmark models mentioned; four curated collections of city districts Source
Cut into a puzzle Jigsaw cuts up to 200 numbered pieces, with an optional tray Source Jigsaw, interlock, wavy, straight or locking edges; pieces 10 to 80 mm (25 mm by default) Source No jigsaw mentioned; tiles lock together with bowtie keys Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Keychains Keychain mode: raised map, low relief or flat picture, six shapes, a ring tab or hole and a name, down to 15 mm Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Roads that light shines through Lithophane plate: streets cut through a flat city plate so light shines through them, sized for a lithophane frame Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Sea floor depth Optional sea floor at its measured depth, shaded in up to 8 depth bands Source Ocean and coastal sea floor; most lakes have no depth data Source Ocean floor data used for its Ridgeline posters Source Not mentioned A switch to flatten the seabed to sea level Source Not mentioned Not mentioned
Water that drops in Water as separate inserts that drop into the map, or as its own plate under it Source Water sits flush with the shore as a separate 3MF part Source Water can be a separate 3MF part Source Water recessed into a groove, or cut through as a hole Source Rivers, lakes and sea cut into the ground or laid on top, as their own 3MF part Source In Stacked prints the water comes as its own pieces, each lying in a cut-out Source Water as its own part Source
Trails, rivers and roads that push in GPX trails, rivers and streams, and roads print as thin strips on their own plate and push into slots cut in the map, so one filament shows them in a second colour Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Road and water parts can be printed separately and inlaid by hand; no slots mentioned Source In Stacked prints the streets print as one web that drops into a channel in the ground Source Not mentioned
Frames and clip-in frames Cut into the map or around it with five edge profiles and text; drop-in and clip-in frames printed separately; wall-mount cutouts Source Raised picture-frame rim with an engraved label, single-piece models only Source A border with its own width setting; no frame mentioned Source Optional square or rounded frame with a title, fused to the model or printed on its own Source Frame around the map with your own text, or the place name and coordinates, raised on its front edge Source Cut to fill a picture frame: A4, A3, 20 × 30 to 50 × 70 cm, or any size from 7.2 to 100 cm a side Source Decorative frame for desk display; a label of up to 40 characters engraved on the frame or base Source
Use from AI assistants (MCP) MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants, no sign-in: search places, find landmarks and get a link that builds the model Source MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants, no sign-in: search places and get a link that builds the model Source Not mentioned No public API; you can share editor links that reopen a map Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Other worlds Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Ceres and Vesta, up to 1,000,000 km² per model Source Moon and Mars Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned
Building roofs Mapped roof shapes, plus 11 fitted roof types (gabled, hipped, mansard, dome, spire and more) where none are mapped Source Mapped roof shapes from OpenStreetMap: hipped, gabled, skillion, pyramidal and domes Source No roof shapes: simple blocks Source Measured roofs in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and 300 Japanese municipalities; France in beta Source No roof shapes mentioned; buildings are prisms rising from the ground Source Not mentioned Not mentioned
Area shapes Rectangle, circle, freeform, hearts, stars and other presets, letters, an uploaded SVG, or a city or district outline Source Rectangle, square, circle, hexagon or a drawn polygon Source Square, rectangle, circle, oval, triangle, a country or US state outline, or an outline you draw or upload Source Rectangle, circle, hexagon, a drawn shape or GeoJSON, with an option to clip to the coastline Source Square, round, hexagon or a free rectangle, turned to any angle Source Square plates, or a custom width and height, with north not fixed at the top Source A rectangle you draw on the map Source
Multi-colour printing Up to 16 filament slots, coloured by feature or by height band, with presets Source Yes: terrain, water, roads, buildings and trails each arrive as their own part Source Yes: a filament for each part Source Yes: a colour body per feature Source Yes: every layer is its own 3MF part, or a zip of one STL per colour Source Yes: terrain, buildings, roads, water and woodland as their own parts; Stacked (beta) makes one piece per colour for a one-spool printer Source City, streets, water, frame and label as separate parts Source
Large maps in tiles Strips, grids, hexes or puzzle cuts up to 500 km², laid out on build plates with an assembly sheet Source Grid tiles, hexagon tiles or jigsaw puzzle pieces Source Up to 3 by 3 tiles locked with bowtie keys Source A grid of tiles sized to your printer bed, as STL or 3MF Source Tiles that line up edge to edge, up to 40 a side and 600 in all, split to fit your print bed Source 2 × 2, 3 × 3 or 4 × 4 square plates that butt together Source Not mentioned
Tiles joined with pins Pin holes in the shared edges of tiles, joined with short lengths of ordinary 1.75 mm filament Source No pins mentioned; puzzle pieces lock together with knobs Source No pins mentioned; tiles lock together with bowtie keys Source Not mentioned No pins mentioned; tiles line up edge to edge Source No pins mentioned; flat-edged tiles butt together and are glued along the edges Source Not mentioned
Assembly sheet and print tracking A printable sheet showing where each numbered tile goes, and marks for which tiles are printed and fitted, saved with your work Source Not mentioned Not mentioned Not mentioned No assembly sheet mentioned; each tile exports as its own part, named by its position Source A print and assembly guide that names each tile by row and column Source Not mentioned
GPX routes Yes, with width, height and colour per route, plus trail and marathon course search Source Yes, each route in its own colour Source Yes: embossed, engraved or a separate part Source Yes, GPX or KML as a raised line Source Yes: GPX, KML or GeoJSON lines as raised ribbons, plus shapes and pins Source Not mentioned Not mentioned
Files you download 3MF ready for Bambu Studio that also opens in PrusaSlicer and Cura, one named part per feature (your slicer can save STL); GLB and OBJ with colors for viewers and modeling tools; PNG pictures Source STL, 3MF, GLB, OBJ Source STL, 3MF, OBJ, GLB, plus a GeoTIFF elevation grid Source glTF, OBJ, 3MF, STL, DXF, 3DM, SKP, IFC Source STL, 3MF, a zip of one STL per colour, GLB, OBJ and DXF Source 3MF, STL and OBJ, with a print and assembly guide Source STL, 3MF and OBJ Source
Where the model is built In your browser, on your own computer Source On your own device Source On its servers, which download the data for your area Source In your browser Source In your browser Source In your browser Source On its servers: processed in Frankfurt, generated files deleted after 7 days Source
Languages English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and Japanese Source English, German, Spanish, French and Russian Source English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Hindi Source English, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese Source English, with no language menu Source English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch and Swedish Source English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese Source
Updates V1.213, 21 October 2026; patch notes for every release Source v2.4.1, 5 October 2026 (changelog under About) Source Not mentioned A newsletter when something ships; no changelog found Source Not mentioned No changelog found; dated blog posts, the latest on 5 September 2026 Source Not mentioned

How this page was checked

Every competitor cell comes from that tool's own website, read on 17 October 2026, and links to the page it came from. "Not mentioned" means we found nothing about it there. These tools change quickly; if something here is out of date, tell us on Discord or through the contact page and we will fix it.

Try Mini Skyline on the map

Common questions

Is Mini Skyline a Map2Model alternative?

Yes. The original Map2Model (map2model.com) has shut down. Mini Skyline turns a place on the map into a model with buildings, landmarks, roads, water and terrain, and downloads it as a multi-colour 3MF for your slicer. It is free, needs no account, and lets you sell your prints.

Which of these tools are free?

On 17 October 2026, Mini Skyline, TerraPrinter and MapsTo3D were free, and Printed Canyon let you pay what you want from $0. Maps3D had a free preview with downloads at $5 per map or $20 a month, GeoFilament charged €3 to €8 per model, and City3DPrint $14.99 or €9.99 per model.

Can I get an STL from Mini Skyline?

Mini Skyline writes 3MF, which keeps every colour and named part and opens in every current slicer. If another program needs an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.