Creating 3D Topographic Maps with Blender and QGIS

Ferdinand Schenck

DEM From https://portal.opentopography.org/raster?opentopoID=OTSDEM.032021.4326.3

“Raster->Extraction->Contour”

Setting pic 100

Copper: #B87333

Project->Layout Manager…

Add Item->Add Map

Click on top left of canvas and draw map

Layout->Export as Image

Blender

In Layout mode. Add->Mesh->Plane

Edit Mode->Right click on plane. Subdivide.

Hebed recommends 100 cuts, but I found that too coarse, so try 1000, if your computer can handle it.

back to object mode

Modifier properties (little blue wrench)

Add modifier-> Deform -> Displace Add new texture

Texture properties

Open -> Choose your DEM PNG

Add Modifier -> Generate -> Subdivision Surface

Object -> Scale Z around 20

Material property

Add new color map

Surface -> Base Color -> Image Texture

Select the light -> Light.

Make it a Sun, and put strength to 3 or 4

Set the angle. Based on what you do, you might want a higher or lower angle. I went for 30 here

Camera Orthographic projection

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{schenck2025,
  author = {Schenck, Ferdinand},
  title = {Creating {3D} {Topographic} {Maps} with {Blender} and {QGIS}},
  date = {2025-11-23},
  url = {https://fnands.com/blog/2025/30_day_map_process/index_3d.html},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Schenck, Ferdinand. 2025. “Creating 3D Topographic Maps with Blender and QGIS.” November 23. https://fnands.com/blog/2025/30_day_map_process/index_3d.html.