Introduction

This report reflects on my journey during Google Summer of Code 2025, where I worked on the 3D Model Repository (3DMR): a platform that makes high-quality, CC-licensed 3D assets discoverable, reusable, and directly linkable to OpenStreetMap (OSM) features. At its core, 3DMR is about more than just hosting models: it’s about ensuring provenance, metadata quality, and renderer-friendly optimized delivery.

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Initial Project Goals

Details of my original proposal can be found here: OSM: Modernize the 3D Model Repository.

In essence, the goal of the project under GSoC 2025 was to revive the 3DMR project by upgrading Django and related dependencies and standardizing on the widely accepted glTF/GLB format so renderers can load models predictably.

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Work Done

My detailed progress notes are documented on the community thread. A high level summary of the major milestones can be highlighted as:

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The Community Bonding Period officially wrapped up on June 1, and the coding phase is already off to a solid start.

During CBP, we successfully migrated the legacy 3DMR repo from GitLab to the new official GitHub repo. This cleanup made collaboration and discussions way easier. I also dove into pygltflib to handle glTF files, experimented with the obj2gltf converter.

I spent a good chunk of time mapping with the iD and JOSM editors, focusing on features from my home village. It’s oddly satisfying to see buildings you’ve walked past for years show up as polygons and tags. I plan to keep adding more local features whenever time allows. I experimented rendering both my mapped data and some iconic Indian landmarks using OSM2World, let’s just say it made my village look unexpectedly fancy.

With coding underway, my first priority was building out the test suite. The project didn’t have one before, which would’ve made every upgrade feel like defusing a bomb in the dark. I’ve opened a PR for it, currently under review. While working on this, I found a few minor bugs lurking quietly in the codebase for years, filed them, fixed them, and thankfully had those PRs merged.

The Django 5.2 upgrade is nearly done and is clinging on my forked repo as i am writting this… Most dependency updates and refactoring are complete. Now I’m exploring edge cases, making sure nothing’s hiding in the shadows ready to throw a 500 error when nobody’s looking. Once the test suite merges, we’ll be in a much safer spot to modernize the stack.

On the personal side: I’m a long-distance runner and have been using summer break to improve my endurance. I run 5 to 7 kilometers daily, a good counterbalance to all the screen time, long debugging sessions, and occasional existential dread that come with working through old code 🙃. I also have a few books lined up, both fiction and non-fiction, hoping to get through them—unless I get distracted again.

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Hello everyone!

I’m Ayush Dhar Dubey, a 2nd-year undergraduate student at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, pursuing my major in Civil Engineering. While my academic roots lie mostly in reinforced concrete and structural design…software development and open-source have become equally foundational to how I think about solving real-world problems.

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been selected for Google Summer of Code 2025 as a student developer with OpenStreetMap (OSM). My project, under the mentorship of Lonvia and Tordanik, is titled “Modernize the 3D Model Repository (3DMR)”.

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What is 3DMR and Why Does it Matter?

The 3D Model Repository (3DMR) is an online platform that allows contributors to upload openly licensed 3D models and link them to OpenStreetMap features. Tools like OSM2World can then render realistic 3D views of real-world locations using this data.

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