nowfound

Life & fun · March 2, 2016

Turn GPS tracks into 3D-Printed mountains

Barcelona artist-run SME prototyping with emerging technologies. Partner for European art–science–technology projects.

Turn GPS tracks into 3D-Printed mountains launched on March 2, 2016 with 63 votes, #1,258 of 4,409 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 10 years on.

In plain words

NICETRAILS is a Barcelona-based artist-run company that converts GPS tracks into 3D-printed physical models of landscapes. The studio specializes in prototyping art-science-technology projects across Europe, creating working demonstrations that bridge research and public engagement. Their projects include coin-operated viewers exploring estuary futures, participatory biodiversity documentation for farms and urban edges, and explorations of how place shapes digital identity and growth.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Artist-run SME building the working prototype between the research paper and the public. We join European art–science–technology projects as the partner that ships the demonstrator. Coin-operated viewers as portals to modelled estuary futures. Participatory biodiversity records for farms and peri-urban edges. Terroir asked of digital identity: what a place does to what grows infrom nicetrails.com

Does a similar job

all alternatives →
  • Nice Trails2016 · nicetrails.com · ▲111

    Turn GPS tracks into 3D printed mountains

  • Open-Source eInk Bike ComputerSep 2026 · opentrailpaper.com · ▲421

    OpenTrailPaper is open-source bike computer firmware for the LilyGO T5S3 4.7" E-Paper PRO. It supports offline maps, GPX routes, FIT recording and Bluetooth sensors.

  • 3D Terrain simulation for hiking, skiing etc.2025 · github.com · ▲150

    I'm working on a GPS track visualizer for quite some time. It shines in hilly and mountaineous terrain (where a 3D view makes more sense), but it also offers quite a lot of Strava-like features (statistics etc.). You can upload your GPX and FIT files manually, or sync directly with Garmin, Coros and Polar. See https://cubetrek.com for the live app and check out some examples there. It's free and opens source. Also, anyone who likes to work with 3D visualizations (especially Babylon.js), let me know if you like to help polish this thing further.

  • AR
    A raytracer to shade topographic maps in R2018 · tylermw.com · ▲198
  • I've made a Monte-Carlo raytracer for glTF scenes in WebGPU2024 · github.com · ▲131

    This is a GPU "software" raytracer (i.e. using manual ray-scene intersections and not RTX) written using the WebGPU API that renders glTF scenes. It supports many materials, textures, material & normal mapping, and heavily relies on multiple importance sampling to speed up convergence.

  • I built an interactive plotter art exhibit for SIGGRAPH2024 · lostpixels.io · ▲167

    I'm enthralled with using pen plotters to make generative art. Last August at SIGGRAPH, I built an interactive experience for others to see how code can be used to make visual art. The linked blog post is my trials and tribulations of linking a MIDI controller to one of these algorithms and sending its output to a plotter, so that people may witness the end-to-end experience.

More life & fun this month

the category →

Source: Show HN post ↗

Launched alongside, March 2016

the whole month →
  • Carrd▲1,643

    Simple, responsive, one-page sites for pretty much anything.

    Growth · 2016 · carrd.com

  • Privacy.com▲1,134

    Get a new virtual card for every transaction

    Commerce · 2016 · privacy.com

  • Franz▲877

    Franz combines WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Gmail, Outlook, and native Signal in one desktop app with AI summaries, workspaces, and privacy-conscious local features.

    Work · 2016 · meetfranz.com

  • DeepGram▲819

    Search engine for speech

    AI · 2016 · deepgram.com

  • Search and download thousands of logos instantly

    Work · 2016 · namecheap.com

  • Make voice calls in Slack

    Growth · 2016