TopoStackStudio
Open studio

Sources and attribution

TopoStack is built on shared geographic data and open-source work. Here is where that work comes from, how we use it, and who to credit.

Terrain and elevation

Mapzen Terrain Tiles

Elevation tiles are sampled, cropped to your selected area, and converted into terrain layers, contour lines, and 3D previews. Vertical exaggeration and contour spacing are applied by TopoStack.

Credit / license: Composite terrain dataset; source-specific notices follow

Mapzen combines regional and global elevation datasets. Contributors vary with the selected location; the credits below cover its contributing sources. See the terrain source attribution and terms.

Terrain contributors and credit notices (11)

Roads, trails, water, and boundaries

Protomaps Basemap 20260905

The pinned OpenStreetMap-derived basemap supplies roads, trails, water features, and boundaries for generated artwork. TopoStack selects, classifies, clips, and simplifies these features into engraving paths.

Credit / license: ODbL Produced Work based on OpenStreetMap data

OpenStreetMap contributors

Community mapping supplies the underlying geographic features used through Protomaps, the location map, and place search. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Credit / license: ODbL

OpenStreetMap data is available under the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. See OpenStreetMap’s copyright and attribution guidance and Protomaps licensing.

Protomaps’ source pipeline also includes OSM water and earth polygons, produced by Jochen Topf and osmcoastline contributors under ODbL, and Natural Earth public-domain geographic data by Tom Patterson, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, and contributors. These provide coastline and generalized geographic context where included in the selected tiles.

Lake outlines and modeled depth

HydroLAKES v1.0

Lake outlines, identifiers, and surface elevations supplement provider water masks and OSM shorelines to locate lakes and connect them to depth data. TopoStack clips and simplifies the outlines and joins them to GLOBathy estimates and available surveys.

Credit / license: CC BY 4.0 — Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016)

GLOBathy

Estimated maximum depths help TopoStack construct a modeled lake floor where survey coverage is unavailable. The resulting shape is a TopoStack approximation, not a measured bathymetric survey.

Credit / license: CC0 1.0 — Khazaei, B., Read, L.K., Casali, M., Sampson, K.M., Yates, D.N. (2022)

HydroLAKES is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Research citation: Messager et al. (2016), Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach.

GLOBathy data is released under CC0 1.0. Research citation: Khazaei et al. (2022), GLOBathy, the global lakes bathymetry dataset.

Surveyed lake depth

Where coverage is available and water depth is enabled, TopoStack uses published lake-floor grids or interpolates measured depth contours. Survey gaps may use existing terrain or modeled depths. Your depth scale and layer settings can further alter the shape for fabrication.

Find a lake in the depth directory. Catalog updated 2026-09-15.

How we turn surveys and terrain into lake depths explains the process, predictions, and fabrication limits.

NOAA NCEI Great Lakes Bathymetry

Great Lakes, USA / Canada · Surveyed grid

Great Lakes depth grids are sampled relative to each lake’s published low-water datum. Lake Superior remains a draft dataset.

Credit / license: Public domain; acknowledge source.

Dataset citations: Erie · Huron · Michigan · Ontario.

USGS Crater Lake multibeam bathymetry

Oregon, USA · Surveyed grid

The 2000 multibeam survey supplies Crater Lake’s floor. Published bed elevations are converted to depths using a reference water level of 1,882.6 m.

Credit / license: Public domain; acknowledge source.

USGS Lake Tahoe multibeam bathymetry

California / Nevada, USA · Surveyed grid

The 1998 multibeam survey supplies Lake Tahoe’s floor. Published bed elevations are converted to depths using the survey’s 1,899 m reference level.

Credit / license: Public domain; acknowledge source.

USGS Mono Lake bathymetric model

California, USA · Surveyed grid

The bathymetric model based on the 1986–87 survey supplies Mono Lake’s floor. Elevations in feet are converted to depths in meters using a 6,390 ft reference level.

Credit / license: Public domain; acknowledge source.

Minnesota DNR lake bathymetry

Minnesota, USA · Survey contours

Measured depth contours are converted from feet to meters and interpolated onto a 20 m grid, clipped to the published lake outlines and islands.

Credit / license: Minnesota DNR General Geographic Data License; survey contours interpolated by TopoStack. Source terms

swisstopo swissBATHY3D

Switzerland & border lakes · Surveyed grid

Swiss lake-floor grids are averaged to a 10 m serving grid and aligned approximately to HydroLAKES surface elevations. Coverage varies by lake; TopoStack does not perform a vertical-datum transformation.

Credit / license: © swisstopo; open government data. LN02 bed elevations aligned approximately to HydroLAKES surface elevations; no vertical-datum transformation.

Syke Finland lake bathymetry

Finland · Survey contours

Measured depth contours are interpolated onto a 20 m grid within the survey’s depth-area mask and measured contour coverage. Gaps remain unmeasured.

Credit / license: Source: Syke, CC BY 4.0. Survey contours interpolated by TopoStack; gaps remain unmeasured.

Ontario lake bathymetry

Ontario, Canada · Survey contours

Negative metre contours from the latest indexed survey are converted to positive depths and interpolated onto a masked 20 m grid within measured contour coverage.

Credit / license: Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario. Survey contours interpolated by TopoStack; not for navigation.

NVE Norway lake bathymetry

Norway · Survey contours

Digital depth contours are joined to survey polygons and interpolated onto a masked 20 m grid for the covered Norwegian lakes.

Credit / license: Source: NVE, Norwegian Licence for Open Government Data (NLOD). Digital survey contours interpolated by TopoStack. Source terms

Texas Water Development Board reservoir surveys

Texas, USA · Survey contours

Verified contours for Alan Henry, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake are converted using report reference levels and interpolated onto masked 10 m grids.

Credit / license: Source: Texas Water Development Board. Copying and distribution permitted by TWDB site policy; contours interpolated by TopoStack. Source terms

Bureau of Reclamation reservoir surveys

Colorado, USA · Survey contours

Verified surveys of Estes, Flatiron, and Pinewood use documented historical reference levels and conservative contour masks to produce 10 m depth grids.

Credit / license: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; public domain. Survey contours interpolated by TopoStack at documented historical reference levels.

Location map and place search

OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles

The studio’s location map uses OpenFreeMap’s Liberty style and hosted tiles to help you frame an area. Generated artwork uses the terrain and feature datasets described above.

OpenFreeMap · © OpenMapTiles · Data from OpenStreetMap contributors. Provider credits remain available on the interactive map.

Geoapify

Place search turns a place name into coordinates and a location label so you can select an area. Search is powered by Geoapify and includes OpenStreetMap-derived information.

Powered by Geoapify · © OpenStreetMap contributors. Service terms.

Compass artwork and interface design

TopoStack’s north-arrow presets are redrawn as single-line engraving geometry, informed by these Wikimedia Commons references:

The interface uses Jost (Copyright 2020 The Jost Project Authors) and Archivo (Copyright 2020 The Archivo Project Authors), bundled with Loidolt Theme. Both fonts use the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Terrain illustrations are TopoStack’s own vector artwork. Studio screenshots show the bundled terrain preview. The Atomm interface adapts the Atomm generator layout and design guidance; its platform SDK provides the host integration.

Open-source software

These libraries power the interface, map processing, previews, and downloads. Their maintainers and contributors retain their respective copyrights.

  • Svelte and SvelteKit · MIT

    Application interface, routing, and static pages.

  • Loidolt Theme · MIT

    Shared interface components, styles, and themes.

  • Lucide · ISC

    Interface icons.

  • MapLibre GL JS · BSD-3-Clause

    Interactive location map rendering.

  • Three.js · MIT

    3D terrain and exploded layer previews.

  • PMTiles · BSD-3-Clause

    Reading map and bathymetry tile archives.

  • @mapbox/vector-tile and pbf · BSD-3-Clause

    Decoding vector map tiles and their Protocol Buffer data.

  • polygon-clipping · MIT

    Combining and clipping terrain and map geometry.

  • fflate · MIT

    Compression and downloadable project ZIP files.

  • idb-keyval · Apache-2.0

    Local browser data caching.

The complete dependency inventory records direct and transitive packages. Each package’s license contains its full notices and terms. TopoStack’s code license applies to TopoStack code; geographic data and third-party assets retain their own terms.

Credits in your exported project

Complete fabrication downloads include ATTRIBUTION.txt with the map-source notices, applied survey credits, and terrain imagery sources reported by the provider. The project manifest also records source attribution and dataset versions. Survey credits are added when survey data is used.

Keep these files with the artwork when sharing a project. This page describes the sources available across TopoStack; your project’s records describe the data used for that generation.

TopoStack crops, resamples, simplifies, interpolates, and scales source data for decorative fabrication. These adaptations are made by TopoStack and do not imply endorsement by the original providers.

Found a missing credit or an incorrect source description? Report an attribution correction.