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. It powers the urban-terrain example.

Note

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.

Important

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.

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.