Most topographic map tools show a lake as a flat hole. With a surveyed lake, TopoStack builds the lake floor from published depth measurements, so each layer of a stacked map follows the real drop-offs, bays and deep holes. That is what makes a lake map recognizable to the people who fish, sail or live on it.
Regions with surveyed lakes
Minnesota
2,000 lakes · survey depth contours from Minnesota DNR lake bathymetry.
Ontario
3,396 lakes · survey depth contours from Ontario lake bathymetry.
Finland
1,821 lakes · survey depth contours from Syke Finland lake bathymetry.
Norway
521 lakes · survey depth contours from NVE Norway lake bathymetry.
Switzerland and border lakes
22 lakes · surveyed depth grids from swisstopo swissBATHY3D.
Great Lakes
6 lakes · surveyed depth grids from NOAA NCEI Great Lakes Bathymetry.
United States lakes and reservoirs
9 lakes · surveyed grids and survey contours from USGS Crater Lake multibeam bathymetry, USGS Lake Tahoe multibeam bathymetry, USGS Mono Lake bathymetric model, Texas Water Development Board reservoir surveys, Bureau of Reclamation reservoir surveys.
Surveyed grids and survey contours
A surveyed grid is a continuous lake-floor model, usually from multibeam sonar, and gives the most detailed layers. Survey contours are measured depth lines; TopoStack fills the space between them, which works well at the scale of a laser-cut map. Where a survey covers only part of a lake, the studio uses terrain or modeled depths for the rest and says so. How lake depths work has the details.
From lake to laser
Open any lake from a region page, generate terrain with water depth on, and export SVG cut panels. The custom lake depth map guide walks through framing, depth layers and finishing, and paint templates help you color only the water. Looking for a specific lake? Search the full directory by name, county or survey ID, or see the worked Crater Lake example.