Multi-color 3D Prints with Topoprint

This blog post outlines the process of creating multi-color 3D prints using the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon printer and the Topoprint software. I explain how to prepare multiple STL files for distinct landscape features, using OrcaSlicer for effective slicing. The final print, requiring extensive filament changes, showcases the Landwasserviadukt.

"Yes, yes, and ...!" and Rubber Duck Debugging

When someone proposes an idea to you, smile and assure them that you understand (yes ...). Express your enthusiasm about it (... yes ...) with an even bigger smile. Then, offer to enhance and extend their great idea (... and ...). You can compare this creativity technique to rubber duck debugging, but always remember that you should not replace a human with an LLM.

Seeing the Bigger Picture in Small Details: Birchgletscher’s Collapse

Last week, Switzerland’s Birchgletscher collapsed and caused a major rock avalanches, altering the landscape and burying the village of Blatten. With the data of the federal Rapid Mapping service and the help of individual experts, a first open post-event elevation model was made available. I used the model to create pre- and post-event visualizations and prints at a local scale.

One SQL statement to create a web map of Pizza places

The post explores an SQL query using DuckDB and OvertureMaps data to extract, filter, and visualize pizza places in Switzerland. All these steps can be done in one line, and the generated map of Swiss pizza places can be viewed immediately using PMTiles.

Swiss Rooftop Explorer - or how to serve a Low Cost Geo App with no maintenance

The Swiss Rooftop Explorer is a cloud-native web app that retrieves Swiss building roof heights without a GIS server. Using PMTiles, Geoparquet, and DuckDB-WASM, it enables fast, low-maintenance geospatial queries. This post explores the data pipeline and its benefits of cloud-optimized formats, and how static files can replace traditional GIS infrastructure.