In this tutorial we will create a very simple 3D online viewer with the use of QGIS and the plugin Qgis2threejs.

1. Download the lastest stable version of QGIS: https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html

2. Get a geo-referenced Digitial Elevation Model (DEM) and a geo-referenced image of you area of interest. A great place those is https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (login required).

3. Open your QGIS and go to ‘Plugins’ => ‘Manage and Install Plugins…’.

4. Search for ‘qgis2threejs’, select it and click on ‘Install plugin’.

5. Add your elevation layer and image layer to QGIS. Now open ‘Web’ => ‘Qgis2threejs => ‘Qgis2threejs Exporter’

6. Check the elevation model, go to ‘File’ = ‘Export to Web …’ and set the Output Directory.

7. You should now see a interactive viewer of your 3D model. In case the files are not loading properly your browser is probably blocking Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS). Possible solutions are:

• Open your index.html in another browser
• Download a plugin that forces the browser to allow CORS
• Serve the just created files with a server engine

Congratulations! You are now able to create your own 3D online viewers.

Interactive 3D viewer:

Thank you for completing this tutorial. If you learnt something and feel generous, please buy me coffee by making a small donation. Thank You!