By Coulter Heiberger · Updated
What a DEM is, where to get one for your area, and how to turn it into buildable terrain.
A DEM, or digital elevation model, is a raster where each cell holds a ground height, and it is the basis for any real-world terrain you build. To get one for your area you choose a source, clip it to your extent, and confirm the resolution and vertical datum. Globally, Copernicus GLO-30 gives roughly thirty-metre elevation; national lidar programs serve one-metre data where they exist. The work is not the download. It is clipping to exactly your area, picking the right resolution, and converting the raster into a heightmap or mesh your tools can build on. Mantle Place delivers elevation for the area you draw at the finest native resolution available there (1 m wherever USGS lidar covers the site), clipped to your extent: the GeoTIFF, contours, and meshed terrain all come in the bundle at no extra cost, paired with matching imagery and basemap.
Draw an area, download a clipped GeoTIFF. On Mantle Place you draw the area on the globe and the DEM arrives clipped to exactly that extent, at the finest native resolution available there: 1 m wherever USGS lidar covers the site. Areas up to 2 km² are free; larger areas cost $5 plus $2 per km², paid once.
Any tool that reads GeoTIFF, because the elevation is not locked to one tool. Open it in QGIS, build a Civil 3D surface from it, drive Blender terrain with it, and more; contours, LandXML, and meshes cut from the same DEM come in the same bundle at no extra cost. For QGIS or ArcGIS, take the GIS set from your vault.
In the US, NAVD88 (GEOID18) in the GeoTIFF and the CAD and GIS files, and EGM2008 in engine content such as the meshes and heightmap. The bundle manifest records the datum of every file.
Define the area of interest. A precise extent keeps the DEM focused on your site instead of a whole oversized source tile.
Match the resolution to the job: roughly thirty metres globally, finer where national elevation data is available for your area.
Crop the DEM to your extent and confirm the vertical datum so heights line up with your other layers.
Turn the DEM into a heightmap or mesh for your design tool, or take the meshed terrain that comes in your Mantle Place bundle at no extra cost.
A digital elevation model is a raster grid where each cell stores a ground height. It is the source data for building real-world terrain in 3D and CAD tools.
Globally the baseline is around thirty metres from Copernicus GLO-30; national lidar serves one-metre data where it exists. Mantle Place delivers the finest native resolution available for your area, and the bundle manifest reports the true delivered resolution.
Yes. The GeoTIFF and the meshed terrain come in a bundle you keep and re-download from a permanent vault, forever for a paid bundle.
Draw your area, read its Site Brief, and download a bundle you keep: terrain, imagery, CAD drawings, and more, ready for Unreal, Revit, Rhino, and more. $5 plus $2 per square kilometer, and 2 km² and under is free.
Native plugins: Mantle Place for Unreal and Mantle Place for Revit.
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