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Working prototype

Site Context Generator

Coordinates in, a 3D city block out — real building footprints, extruded.

The problem

Building a site-context model is one of the most tedious first tasks: the official GSAPP route is a 17-step, three-app, two-plugin pipeline just to get surrounding buildings into Rhino. Most students only need the massing of what's around their site, quickly and to scale.

What this does

Enter coordinates (or pick a preset), choose a radius, and the tool queries OpenStreetMap for real building footprints, projects them to metres, extrudes each by its height/levels tag, and renders the block in 3D — centred on your site, to scale. Export the massing as GLB or OBJ straight into Rhino, Blender, or SketchUp.

Try it

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What it does

The tool sends a live query to the OpenStreetMap Overpass API for building footprints within your radius, then:

  • Projects latitude/longitude to local metres (so 1 unit = 1 m), centred on your site.
  • Extrudes each footprint by its height tag, or building:levels × 3 m, with a sensible fallback.
  • Renders the surrounding massing in 3D and lets you export GLB / OBJ — georeferenced to your site origin.

Why it's useful

  • A 5-second site model instead of the 17-step GIS pipeline.
  • Real footprints, real heights where tagged, correct scale and origin.
  • Drops straight into your modelling software as context massing.

Honest limits

  • Coverage and height tags depend on OpenStreetMap — dense cities are great, rural areas sparse; untagged buildings use a default height.
  • Footprints only (no roofs/terrain yet); curved walls become dense polylines.
  • Large radii return a lot of geometry — keep it to your immediate context.

The real pipeline (roadmap)

Pairs with the QGIS → Rhino artifact for when you need full attribute control, terrain, and a specific CRS. This one is the instant "just give me the blocks around my site" path.

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