3D print Lake Michigan down to its bed
Lake Michigan with the water taken away: its bed from NOAA’s Great Lakes bathymetry, shaded darker where it is deeper, and the land around it in relief. Open it in the generator, change the size or colors, and export a slicer-ready 3MF.
281 m of water, 3.4 mm on your shelf
The print covers 308 by 535 km. On a 160 mm print the deepest point sits 3.4 mm below the shore.
| Deepest point | Scale | |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 3.4 mm | 1:3,340,000 |
| 200 mm | 4.2 mm | 1:2,670,000 |
| 256 mm | 5.4 mm | 1:2,090,000 |
- Real depths
The bed comes from NOAA’s Great Lakes bathymetry, a grid about 90 m apart that NOAA compiled from depth soundings. Water depth: Sea floor drains the water away and prints the bed in its place.
- 40 times deeper than life
At true scale the deepest point would sit 0.1 mm below the water line on a 160 mm print, too little to see. The print opens with the Elevation multiplier at 8 and the Sea floor depth scale at 5, so the bed is 40 times deeper than life and the land 8 times taller.
- Shades of depth
The bed prints in four shades of the water color, lighter in the shallows and darker in the deeps, each its own filament. Change the number of shades on the Water tab.
About Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes entirely within the United States, shared by Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, with Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay on its shores. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and depth.
To the north it joins Lake Huron through the wide, deep Straits of Mackinac. The two share one surface level, so hydrologically they are a single lake, the largest freshwater lake in the world by area.
Next to the others
Lake Michigan next to the other lakes
Common questions
Is the Lake Michigan depth map free?
Yes. The generator runs in your browser and exports a 3MF file you can open in any common slicer. There is no account or payment.
Are the depths real?
Yes. The bed is read from NOAA’s Great Lakes bathymetry, a grid about 90 m apart that NOAA compiled from depth soundings, when the model is made. It is not estimated from the land around the lake.
Is the lake printed at its true depth?
No. It opens 40 times deeper than life, about 3.4 mm at the deepest point on a 160 mm print, because at true scale the bed would be only 0.1 mm deep. Lower the Elevation multiplier or the Sea floor depth scale for a flatter model.
Can I get an STL instead of a 3MF?
The generator exports 3MF, which keeps each color as its own part. Any slicer can open it and save an STL if you need one.
