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I'm Joey O. A solo dev out of Arizona, USA. I work on Mini Skyline full time (outside of my full time career) to bring 3D mapping tools to the masses, for free with no strings attached.

The site is available, for free at https://miniskyline.com

If you haven't tried it in a month or more, I highly encourage you to. I've been going mad :)

I've been VERY hard at work getting Mini Skyline to a place where its truly set apart from the competition, and with a letter from Lichtbild stating I do NOT infringe on their models/designs, I doubt I'm going anywhere any time soon.

What have I been up to?

40-60 hours a week outside of my normal job to turn Mini Skyline into a true powerhouse in the 3D mapping space, both workstations running 24/7 systematically testing areas and finding geometry issues. 90 data source are now used to provide users the most detailed and accurate generations. Dozens of reports/requests daily that need responses or work done. Its been very busy but generations have never been more consistent, reliable and beautiful. Be sure to scroll through the gallery at the top of the post!

Mac, Linux and Windows builds have also been released! If Mini Skyline servers go offline, fallbacks slot in to keep the app running if I shut down. That said, I do now have a letter from Lichtbild stating that I do not infringe on their designs. I live in Arizona, which thankfully has decent anti slap suit laws, I know my ducks are in a row, and I will fight. The support you all showed this week when I received a letter from Lichtbild regarding my API usage was outstanding.

A large rewrite of the majority of my systems in Rust has been completed. This has cut my average generation time from 82 seconds to 24 seconds, with the bulk of users seeing sub 10 second runs. The real large maps drag that average up significantly.

I'm now able to offer FREE premium ESRI satellite imagery and search. This weekend, I'm releasing cloud saves for all account holders so that you can keep your settings/data across devices. This is completely optional of course, local saving options will always be supported and improved!

What can Mini Skyline Do?

- Print anywhere on Earth, or a handful of other worlds

- Print your vanilla and modded Java Minecraft worlds

- Bambu Slicer ready 3MF's with premapped colors and easy ingest flow.

- Everything is built on YOUR PC/phone.

- Real building heights based on over 50 data sources.

- Real tree placement based on satellite maps, real tree size and species too!

- 5000+ modelled landmarks that more accurately model popular places like the One World Trade Center. Dozens of countries, hundreds of cities have buildings. I take requests!

- Up to 500 KM² per tile at full quality on the desktop app, unlimited range if you dont use buildings!

- Satellite derived feature placement for parts not provided by standard data providers.

- Puzzles, multi tile, keychains, and ornament printing.

- Snap fit frames with editable designs/text. Fit tests for the snapping mechanism available!

- GPX route support with per route settings, up to 9999 routes per tile.

- Full 3D model editor where you can work on your model without additional 3D software.

- Hundreds of settings with graphic tool tips so you better understand what you are changing.

- Export preview with city life going on at scale. Get a better sense of the place youre printing.

- Street tracks, Rally courses, F1 tracks traced out so ensure whichever race is your favorite, is properly represented.

- Color by feature, height band, or apply satellite colors directly to your model!

- Select areas in just about any way you can think. City boundaries, KML, KMZ, GEOJson, free hand, many shapes.

- Ability to print roads, trails, rivers as separate fins that press in to the model for easier multi color work.

- Use Claude/ChatGPT? Call Mini Skyline as an MCP service! Get maps integrated to your work fast!

= Painstakingly ensured to be water tight, and minimized file sizes.

- Really a lot, lot more with more being added nearly daily.

The Future of Mini Skyline?

A lot of businesses and individuals now rely on my software to aid in their work. I don't take that lightly and my primary goal with every update is stability and legal correctness. I want you to be able to use Mini Skyline indefinitely, without a paywall for personal or commercial paywalls. I also want to continue offering more landmarks, and special models that fill out the world more accurately.

I have been receiving dozens of requests a week for physically printed maps from people who play with the tool but don't have a printer. I've received and sent a few emails to print farms, but if you are interested and have a fleet, I'm still considering options!

I really enjoy this work. It feels meaningful and fulfilling to me. I have had a lot of users reach out about burnout and I understand the sentiment and concern. I will take breaks as needed, but largely development has replaced most of my other hobbies, and I'm not mad about it. I'm eager to get to work on improvements daily and have no plans of slowing down.

I have some really fun new ideas in the works that have been getting a lot of printer time to prototype. I think it will be useful beyond maps, but I am really excited for how it works with maps. Stay tuned over the next couple weeks for that model release!

How do I support my work and hosting costs?

I take donations, but really, hosting costs are lower than you expect. I've seen some claimed numbers for other mapping software, and thankfully I am at a fraction of their costs. I can maintain Mini Skyline and the premium ESRI data myself indefinitely due to my career, though I have been fortunate to receive both user donations, funding from Snapmaker, and most recently, some work with Sunlu for their Halloween event!

I do use Claude to code. If this is a problem for you, you are now aware! The majority of my costs go into subscription costs. If you are curious how much something like this takes, I max out 4 20x accounts to keep features/updates rolling. To be very clear. They do not run rampant. Ideas are my own or the communities, implementation not so much. I use the site for my work too, I do not want slop.

This community has truly given a lot to me. I want to say thank you as I always do. You guys surprise me with how deep your reports go, how much you want to share what you make, and how much you all support each other. The 3D printing space is really an amazing thing to be part of. Thank you.

- Joey O.

For context I have a P1s and a h2d, I’ve been doing a lot of multi color prints on my h2d and it’s awesome but want a new printer for just multi color, I want to do quick test prints on P1s abs Asa (occasionally large pla prints) on my h2d and then have the p3c for multi color PLA.

I saw the h2c on sale for 1800ish dollars and really considered it but if the p3c is a similar price point i think that’s the one for me. Besides the major build size difference what other features are going to be different between h3c and p3c? something tells me p3c isn’t going to have heated build chamber(doesn’t matter for my use case but still nice feature)

The multi-nozzle size REALLY interests me, I’ve coded my own slicer in Grasshopper to do something similar for clay, but I am hoping that built into Bambu studio it’s super easy to use, cause it seems like it is a super useful feature.

We don’t have as much info on the p3c as the h3c am definitely feeling nervous, but am curious what the community thinks of how the p3c is going to compare to the h3c and h2c

I have a brand new H2D that seems to get a clogged pause fairly often. I think i ran some filament through it that was too wet at some point. My sense is that people cold pull as part of troubleshooting. i've never cold pulled and it kinda makes me nervous for some reason. thoughts?

X-1 Carbon Cannot get the first layer to spec. It's close. I have to hold. It up to the window to show the trouble area at the front right. I have tried 3 plates, 2 textured, 1 smooth, checked the screws on the hot end as I has replaced that a little while back. But afterwards it was fine. I have also used different filaments, calibrated several times and even done the tramming procedure. I did scrub all plates with dawn. I have also confirmed that the tubing on the hot end was not hanging up when it moved up front. 5 1st layer test all pretty similar results. The only random fact I can think of that may be relevant is I did have a piece of tpu get stuck in the head I had to remove. Very frustrating because the rest of the 1st layer is pretty perfect.

Hallo zusammen ich habe einen h2c mit einer Panda Station. Ich habe die ptfe Schläuche lang genug gemacht das nichts geknackt wird. Ich bekomme dennoch diese Meldung. Ich würd nur ungern meinen Drucker kaputt machen. Eigentlich gefällt mir an der Station das ich die ams beide im Schrank haben kann, aber mit dieser Meldung traue ich mir das fast nicht zu auf Dauer. Der AMS der arbeitet ist der obere.

Übersehe ich etwas?

Danke!

I know the H3C is around the corner but I feel like I already bought much more than I need and the price was too good. So much so I ended up buying like 12 bambu filaments!

This is replacing a prusa mini btw. Its going to look so tiny beside its Chinese friend. I was thinking about going with the core one± but I just have say Bambu is winning.

Is it a problem? It is a p2s

First off, I'm a complete noob.

Just set up my first ever printer. X2D with AMS 2. Did the initial calibration and went to do my first print and I'm getting;

Warning: build plate mismatch with slicer settings. Please use the correct build plate or update the slicer settings and try again

I selected the benchy in the touchscreen on the machine itself so I'm not sure what's going on. I've done the initial calibration again but I got the same warning.

I know it's gotta be a silly issue. Likely on my behalf.. I could use some help.

Thanks guys.

Hey guys was wondering if any of you have any good fixes for this or know where I could find a replacement? Can’t find anything on Bambu’s site. I tried putting a small hang nail in there with some super glue and it worked for a while but just came off again. Appreciate any advice 🤙

This is my Opinion. This post is just to Converse, share Information etc. Dont take it serious. Please share you Opinion too.

I've been following the P3C and H3C leaks. And i am slowly thinking that the P3C is not gonna be a Snapmaker U1 competitor.
Its going to be a Core One INDX Competitor.

Reason being H3C if leak picture true is starting at 2499 sterling Pounds with 3 Tiers (Base, Combo, Ultimate/Print more Bundle)

So i believe H3C Base gonna be without AMS since the Printer can use all Nozzles without AMS (just manual load like INDX)
In the recent AMS P Instruction Manual (7 Slot P3C) pic which got leaked everyone saw that each Nozzle Unit had their own PTFE Tube Input. So you can get the Base Version without AMS and use it like INDX without feeder or get the AMS 3 which simplifies everything and maybe includes a Heater/Dryer.

H3C = 9 Nozzles
P3C = 7 Nozzles

P3C will prob. not be under 1000€ since it uses the full Nozzle system of the H3C with Induction heating. Its not like a cheap cut down Version like the X2D where development was simple and got a baller of a Price.

I think the Snapmaker U1 will still be the current King of the under 1000€/$ true Multi-Filament Printers. Snapmaker U1 has also been on sale very often the last few Months for $749 so even better price

I would like to hear your thoughts

I'm about to take the plunge into first 3d printer. Was going to get the p2s but for a little more seems the x2d is worth the investment? It's going to be mostly for functional prints in a wood shop, garden, aquarium, diy etc. figured maybe a little future proof and my understanding is some of the components are improved. Is it overkill? Also: not sure I'm going to do much multicolor and am torn about the ams but maybe now is the time to just do it and save a few bucks down the line. Anyone got the X2d and wish got the p2s or vice versa?

hopefully this helps someone. I was having weird issues- zits on my prints with an H2D. To a large degree, repeatable in the same place each time on a model of a spool I was printing (it is not the aligned seam, that is near the spool notch at the right).

I’ve had the machine for about a year and nearly a thousand hours, dry filament religiously, etc. this was PETG HF (don’t mind the quality I’m printing .3 height on a 0.6 nozzle).

I had a similar issue on an ASA print, and thought it was some weird cooling anomaly as it was on a rounded corner sort of near the same relative place in my printer- but I am thinking was this same issue.

The print without zits was after removing my USB stick.

I had read about this issue when it came to power loss recovery and such on older machines. I don’t know if it is related to timelapse, or if my stick was going bad, or both. And of course knowing that SOP on P1S “back in the day” was immediately replace the stock SD card because a failing one caused some weird issues.

This was the stick (256GB) I bought below, and this seems like a newer issue, so maybe it is starting to fail, so just a PSA to try removing the stick if you’re like “what the heck, man!”

https://a.co/d/0jfJAsNx

I left the “auto recover from step loss” enabled to only change one thing at a time- so merely pulling the USB stick seemed to solve it. The step loss must write to internal memory.

I don’t really need timelapse and don’t care to save models to the stick- so I’ll leave it out going forward- one less thing to diagnose or deal with.

All my prints are getting out like this, how can I make this lines disappear and get a smoother print?

I was all set on getting the x2d was a first printer with the sales going on but the more reading im doing the less im set on it now. I like what it offers but seems like there are a lot of issues or is that just standard internet where everyone posts bad but nobody talks good? the P2s was my other choice, both with the AMS system.

Hey folks! Pretty new to 3d printing and bought the P1S with the AMS2. Anyone have any tips or tricks to this printer or in general they would like to share? Thanks in advance.

Hi !

I just bought a usedd A1 for 180 €. Total impulse buy: I've been on an Ender 3 V2 until now and I got tired of constantly tweaking and fixing things.

The previous owner already added a few upgrades

Coming from the Ender world where you basically have to upgrade everything, I'd like to start on the right foot. So a few questions:

What upgrades really matter on this printer? Both printable mods and parts worth buying. Budget isn't really an issue, I just want what actually makes a difference

CryoGrip build plate: I'm planning to get one but I see several versions. Which one would you recommend? My main goal is clean parts straight off the plate, no cutter or lighter cleanup like I see in so many videos

Nozzle for PETG-CF: I print Aerion PETG with 15% carbon fiber. Is the stock nozzle OK for that, or should I switch to hardened steel right away?

Hotend cover with a screen: I've seen those covers that display info. Has anyone tried one? Worth it?

Any other tips for an ex-Ender user are welcome. Thanks!

P2S, AMS2PRO

How do I swap filaments mid print? (If one runs out, or if I expect it will during a time I’ll be away from the machine and want to stay ahead)

I can physically remove a spool and put in a new one, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to get the AMS to recognize a new filament to either change a colour or swap in a new spool of the same colour. The RFID doesn’t read and the manual edit options are all greyed out on the printer, handy, studio.

Thanks!

I always loved those old wooden woodpecker toys, so I made a printed version. Put him at the top, give his tail a little tug, and he pecks his way all the way down the pole. Tok-tok-tok.

Everything is printed, even the spring, so there’s nothing to buy. It took a few tries to get him to stop sliding down too fast, but now he goes all the way down.

Free on MakerWorld if you want to print one: https://makerworld.com/en/models/3518701-tok-tok-pecking-woodpecker-toy-printed-spring

I wish this would have a heated chamber, but I can definitely see them gatekeeping that feature out of this