3D Laser Cut Map

I had an assignment for a college art course where I had to use a laser cutter to make a layered art piece. I immediately thought of those really cool laser cut topographic maps, but I am more interested in highways and major roads than topography, so I decided to create a 3-layer laser cut map of the Bay Area that includes water, land, and major roads.

I first looked around online to find simple instructions on how to make this type of map, but I couldn't find any that had the roads separate from the land. They all had the roads raster-engraved into the land instead of popping out as a separate layer. I also felt like many of the methods I saw to separate the land from the water were tedious and hard to do, especially because of the amount of small lakes and rivers in the Bay Area.

After a lot of trial and error, I figured out a relatively simple way to create this type of map using Inkscape and RetinaEngrave3.0.

• Laser Cutter
• Inkscape (software)
• RetinaEngrave 3.0 (software)
• Acrylic Paint + Paintbrush (optional)
• Superglue (preferably superglue gel)

Instead of posting individual steps, I have a PDF that explains how to go from google maps to having SVG files of the land and roads. One thing that is missing from the PDF is the water layer. For the water layer, you just need to go into Inkscape and create a rectangle/square. Using the same process that was used for the land and water, create a dimensioned rectangle/square that has no fill and has a basic color as the stroke.

Optional: Use acrylic paint to paint the water layer blue. Make sure that the water layer is completely dry before attempting to attach the other layers.

First, place the land layer wherever you would like it to be on top of the water layer. Once you are happy with the placement, use superglue to attach the two layers.

Next, try to line up the roads on the land layer. The best way to do this is to either have bridges that need to be precisely lined up, or mark areas where the roads are supposed to cover/be to make sure they are lined up. Once this is done, use superglue to attach the layers together.