Layered Wall Pictures from Real Elevation Data - Mt Fuji, Maspalomas, Lisbon (HueForge style, 4-colour AMS)

Three layered wall pictures in the HueForge / "filament painting" style, each 150 × 150 mm and only 4.8 mm thick: Mount Fuji at sunset over Lake Kawaguchi, the Maspalomas dunes and the mountains of Gran Canaria, and the Tagus at Lisbon at sunset with the red 25 de Abril suspension bridge in silhouette. Every landscape was rendered in code from real, free elevation data, so the skyline of Fuji, the coast of Maspalomas and the Tagus banks are the real ones; Fuji is mirrored upside down in the lake (the classic "Sakasa Fuji"). The picture is made of height: each 0.4 mm pixel is a column, and the four filaments are stacked from dark to light. Because PLA is slightly translucent, a thin light layer over a dark one gives an in-between tone, so four filaments give 27 to 32 distinct tones.

Details

• Size 150 × 150 × 4.8 mm, fits the A1 mini bed. Picture window 124 × 124 mm, 313 × 313 height pixels at 0.40 mm.

• Frame 13 mm wide with a 45° inner chamfer, a fine 0.5 mm groove line around the window, the place name and coordinates and a small "HANMA", all engraved 0.8 mm so the light band underneath shows through as light letters on a dark frame.

• Hanger: keyhole slot in the back of the top bar for a nail or screw with a head up to 6 mm and a shank up to 2.8 mm. The head slides 5 mm and is held by the ledge.

• Layers: 0.08 mm (first layer 0.16 mm), 100 % infill so light passes through solid plastic, not an infill pattern.

• Colour bands in Z, one filament per layer, so only 4 colour changes per picture: dark base 0 to 0.64 mm, filament 2, filament 3, light filament up to 4.0 mm, then the dark filament again for the top of the frame (4.0 to 4.8 mm).

• Mt Fuji: black / purple / orange / white. Changes at 0.72, 1.92, 2.32, 4.08 mm. 3 h 52 min, 69.4 g plus 1.6 g purge.

• Maspalomas: navy / teal / sand / white. Changes at 0.72, 1.60, 3.28, 4.08 mm. 4 h 21 min, 76.8 g plus 1.4 g purge.

• Lisbon: charcoal / blue / terracotta / cream. Changes at 0.72, 1.68, 3.04, 4.08 mm. 4 h 35 min, 76.2 g plus 1.5 g purge. The sky uses a fine ordered dither (half the pixels of a gradient step go one layer up or down) so it reads as a smooth gradient instead of bands.

• AMS lite: load slot 1 = darkest, slot 4 = lightest, as in the 3MF. Without an AMS you can print it with manual filament changes at the heights above (4 swaps).

• Made for front lighting: the dark base lets through only 4 to 7 % of the light, so it is not a backlit lithophane.

How the colours were worked out

• Light model used by HueForge: each filament has a TD (transmission distance, the thickness that lets only 5 % of the light through). A layer of thickness t and colour c over a background B looks like c·(1−T) + B·T with T = exp(−ln20·t/TD), in linear RGB.

• TD values are estimates from typical community values for basic PLA, not measured on a specific spool: Fuji 0.6 / 1.6 / 2.4 / 3.0 mm, Maspalomas 0.7 / 1.8 / 2.8 / 3.0 mm, Lisbon 0.7 / 1.6 / 2.2 / 3.2 mm. If your filaments differ, the tones will shift.

• For every possible height the simulated colour was computed; each pixel takes the height whose colour is closest to the target (CIELAB). The heights of the colour changes were chosen by a grid search over all combinations.

How it was checked

• Simulated print against the target picture, mean error per pixel: ΔE76 8.4 (Fuji), 6.6 (Maspalomas), 8.5 (Lisbon); mean RGB error 11.2, 11.9 and 12.3 out of 255. For comparison, a single flat height would give 18.8, 21.8 and 23.1, and the same pixels shuffled give 24 to 29. The comparison sheet (target, simulation, error map) is in the pictures.

• Every pixel height is an exact layer boundary; picture heights 0.64 to 3.60 mm. No single-pixel spikes (each pixel is at most one layer above all its neighbours).

• Slicing the mesh layer by layer gives the same area as the height map within 1.1 %; with another picture's heights the check fails (21 to 40 %).

• Each of the 59 layers contains exactly one filament; shifting one band by 0.06 mm makes the check fail. The sliced G-code really has 4 tool changes, at the expected heights.

• All 5 bands of each picture are closed meshes, with no overlap between them (0.00000 mm³), and together they form a single piece. Each STL is 6.7 MB or less, each 3MF 2.8 MB or less.

• No overhang over 45° except the flat 6.2 mm bridges over the keyhole channel. Keyhole: a 6 mm head fits and slides, a 7 mm head does not fit, a 2.8 mm shank runs in the slot, and the head is held at the end of the slot.

• Engraved letters and the groove line keep 99 % of their area after a 0.2 mm morphological opening, so strokes are at least 0.4 mm wide. A 0.3 mm line fails the same test.

Elevation data: AWS Terrain Tiles (Mapzen Terrarium), built from SRTM, GMTED, ETOPO1 and other open sources. Bridge position and size from public data; its members are drawn 3.5 times thicker than real so they print (the real deck would be under 0.4 mm on the picture). Relief of Lisbon and the bridge are shown with ×1.8 vertical exaggeration. The sky, clouds, dune ripples and water texture are painted in code.

About this design

Designed with AI assistance and checked in code before release (see above). Pictures are 3D renders and the slicer preview, not photos. Not printed yet: makes and feedback are very welcome.

Español

Tres cuadros de pared por capas, al estilo HueForge, de 150 × 150 mm: el Fuji al atardecer sobre el lago Kawaguchi, las dunas de Maspalomas con las cumbres de Gran Canaria el Fuji reflejado en el lago, y el Tajo al atardecer en Lisboa con el puente 25 de Abril en silueta. Los paisajes salen de datos reales de elevación. La altura de cada píxel decide el tono: con 4 filamentos de oscuro a claro salen de 27 a 32 tonos, con solo 4 cambios de color. Marco con chaflán, nombre grabado y agujero de llave para colgarlo. De 3 h 52 min a 4 h 35 min y de 69 a 77 g.

العربية

ثلاث لوحات جدارية مطبوعة بطبقات ملونة على طريقة HueForge، قياس كل منها 150 × 150 مم: جبل فوجي عند الغروب منعكسا في بحيرة كاواغوتشي، وكثبان ماسبالوماس مع جبال غران كناريا، ومصب نهر تاجة في لشبونة مع جسر 25 أبريل. المناظر مبنية على بيانات ارتفاع حقيقية. ارتفاع كل نقطة يحدد درجة اللون، فتعطي أربعة خيوط من الداكن إلى الفاتح ما بين 27 و32 درجة مع أربعة تبديلات فقط للون. إطار مشطوف عليه الاسم محفورا، وفتحة مفتاح في الخلف لتعليقه. مدة الطباعة من 3 ساعات و52 دقيقة إلى 4 ساعات و35 دقيقة، والوزن من 69 إلى 77 غراما.