Elevation & Terrain
The Elevation & Terrain panel is a staged pipeline for 3D terrain integration: it sources a DEM, applies elevation to the network, computes grades, builds a terrain mesh, and drapes a basemap onto it.
Requires an active OSMnx graph. Later stages appear only once the relevant data exists (elevation applied, terrain created, etc.).
Step 1 — Get Elevation Data
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Source | DEM provider: OpenTopography (API key + dataset), Open-Elevation (provider, resolution, parallel workers), or Local GeoTIFF. |
| Padding | Extra margin around the area (OpenTopography). |
| Apply to: Nodes / Terrain | Whether to elevate node positions and/or create a terrain mesh. |
| Method | Terrain build method: Displace (with Subdivisions) or a subsampled grid (with Subsample). |
| Vertical Scale / Base Offset (m) | Vertical exaggeration and base height for nodes and terrain. |
| Get Elevation Data | Runs the sourcing/build (enabled when Nodes or Terrain is selected). |
| Export AOI | Export the area bbox to fetch a DEM externally (Copernicus, EarthData…) and re-enter it as a Local GeoTIFF. |
OpenTopography requires an API key set in add-on preferences; the key-bound basemap providers below (Mapbox, MapTiler, Stadia/Stamen) require their own keys.
Step 2 — 3D Positions
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Apply 3D Positions | Move node positions to their elevations. |
| Flatten to 2D | Return the network to a flat layout. |
Step 3 — Slope / Grade
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Calculate Grades | Compute edge grades; reports mean/max grade and the percentage of steep edges (>5%). |
Step 4 — Terrain Object
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Show / Hide | Toggle the terrain mesh visibility. |
| Remove | Delete the generated terrain mesh. |
Step 5 — Basemap Texture
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Source | Imagery style, grouped by provider: Esri (Satellite, Streets, Topographic, Dark/Light Gray, Ocean, Hillshade, Terrain), OpenStreetMap (Standard, OpenTopoMap), CARTO (Voyager, Positron, Dark Matter), Mapbox, MapTiler, Stadia/Stamen, or a custom WMS layer. |
| WMS URL / Layer | Endpoint and layer (WMS source). |
| Zoom | Tile zoom level (tile sources). A live estimate warns before large downloads. |
| Bbox Padding | Extra margin (legacy fallback when no DEM bbox is recorded). |
| Fetch & Apply | Download and drape the basemap onto the terrain. |
| Clear | Remove the applied basemap. |
This panel powers the urban-terrain example.
Step-by-step tutorial
For a worked example using Avenida Naciones Unidas, La Paz (2 km radius), follow Elevation, DEM & 3D terrain. To drape satellite, street or WMS imagery from the mapping APIs onto that terrain, continue with Basemaps & API textures.