Case Study: City of Oslo creates an updatable 1:1,000 3D-printed city model with Safe Software (FME)

City of Oslo - Customer Case Study

The City of Oslo’s Agency for Planning and Building Services needed a large, accurate physical model to support planning and public engagement for a rapidly growing city of over 650,000 people. Their brief was a 1:1,000 3D print representing 34.8 km² of the city — a technical challenge that required converting detailed geospatial data into manufacturable 3D geometry.

Using FME, the team filtered LiDAR to extract terrain, draped it with a geoTIFF, converted buildings into true 3D geometry and attached them to the terrain, then printed a 7.6 × 4.5 m model made of 360 A3-sized removable tiles. Each tile can be reprinted in days for updates; future plans include a smaller portable model with projection overlays for consultations. FME proved central to the workflow and now supports many of the city’s digital and 3D data products.

City of Oslo

Kay Henning Kleverud

City of Oslo