This got tweeted by Will Harvey back on May 22nd this year – but strangely it’s picked up more RT’s in the last few days than at did at the time of posting, and thus is ‘doing the rounds’.
It’s a 3D model of the Tube Map – with Depth showing how the lines run to what depth and appeared at the 3D Printshow.
3D Depth Map
We submitted the latest version of Station Master to Apple for review yesterday – now with quite a few more 3D maps added of London Overground stations. We’ll probably get them all done just in time for when all the new Overground stations open at the end of May, and then we’re in a dilemma about what to do, and if we add them or not …
Anyway, Shepherd’s Bush has had its new map put in too, as it has a new entrance and footbridge at the northern end of the platforms, it now look like this …
Shepherd’s Bush Overground
With the prospect of new Overground stations being added to the official Tube map next month, it kicked us into gear a little when we realised that we still hadn’t finished and published all the 3D maps for the existing Overground stations on the network. Hence, these last few days we’ve been busy designing them and will add them to the next release of Station Master – here Sydenham and its non-facing staggered platforms are clear to see!
Sydenham Station 3D Map
Quite what we’ll do when the NEW Overground lines get added to the map is not clear. Will we add this info to Station Master or not? The jury is currently out and we’ll have to decide what to do …
There are still a few DLR stations that we haven’t done yet for the App in terms of 3D maps, so we’re now getting round to doing these for a release later this year.
In doing so, we’re now experimenting with drawing in the trains and carriages themselves so that you can visualise the station even better.
Here’s the 3D diagram that’s a work-in-progress for Westferry DLR for example.
Westferry 3D Map
With Tottenham Court Road now effectively being a completely new station, we were down there first thing yesterday morning, counting the steps, making a note of the facilities, and of course sketching out a new 3D map.
We’ve incorporated diagrammatic Tube carriages too for the first time to give you a better feel for where the trains stop in relation to the exits!
The App update will be submitted to Apple this week and will go live once it’s been through Apple’s review process.
New Tottenham Court Road
Station Master found itself in Croydon at the weekend, taking a small ride on the Tramlink, and brought to mind the question again of whether it would be worth adding all the Tramlink data to the App.
The initial though is ‘No’, because all stations are almost always identical! They’re all in the open, they’re all accessible, the exits are almost always at the front or at the back – and the trams are only two carriages long anyway, you’re not saving yourself much time by standing in the right place.
There’s no real architecture, history or facilities to talk about – so it’s hard to find something to say about each one.
Then we got home to find someone asking why we hadn’t included the ‘Exit data’ for the Tramlink at Wimbledon station! And we had to politely point out that we hadn’t done Tramlink yet. So … good idea or not?
It didn’t stop us knocking together a quick 3D Map of the Lloyd Park stop, just to see what it would be like – done in the correct ‘Tramlink Green’ colour, of course …
Lloyd Park Tramlink 3D Map
We continue to refresh the old style 3D maps in the App – and now that all the tube stations are complete, we’re now moving onto the remaining Overground stations and when they’re done, we’ll do the rest of the DLR stations!
Out of the 398 stations (Tube/Overground/DLR) in total in London, we’ve mapped out 313 of them – that’s 78% so far, and we will do them all …
Here’s Clapham Junction looking all new and shiny
Clapham 3D
Hot off the design board – Westminster has now got its long needed overhaul and polish for its 3D map, meaning that we’re submitting Station Master 1.9 to the App store today!
New Westminster 3D
We gave Victoria’s 3D map a polish over the weekend, bringing all 270 3D-Tube station maps up to the more modern sleek look, which means Version 1.9 of the App is now a go! And will be submitted this week …
New Victoria 3D
We’ve almost finished refreshing all of our 3D maps, today’s completion – Oxford Circus! Which looks a lot better than the old one. That just leaves us with Victoria to update, and we’ll put out Version 1.9 of Station Master with all 270 3D tube maps in the updated design style, which we really like.
3D Oxford Circus