Create colorful contour maps with custom levels, colors, and a color scale!

Individual contour labels can be dragged to a new location,
new labels can be added and individual labels can be deleted.

Create exciting 3D surface maps from your XYZ data!
Image courtesy of Igor Yashayaev, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.

Combining surface maps is an excellent technique to visually compare data sets.
Image courtesy of Igor Yashayaev, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.
 


Overlay surface maps to visually depict changes with depth!


Create photo-realistic 3D models containing both terrain and ground cover detail by
overlaying 3D surfaces with aerial photography, satellite imagery or other images.

Customize your image map by adding color, including a color scale, and
overlaying it with other map layers to make the map as informative as
possible! The above map is created from an image map of Colorado
elevation overlaid with a base map layer showing the county boundaries.

Colorful and smooth image maps can be combined with base maps and
contour maps to create informative displays. Image courtesy of Igor
Yashayaev, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada.

Create detailed shaded relief maps! This map shows a turbidite fan 
and was created with multi-beam echo-sounder data obtained 
in the Caribbean Sea 

Create spectacular maps in seconds. This map consists of a shaded relief map overlaid with a contour map detailing the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean at 100 meters. Image courtesy of Igor Yashayaev, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada.



Combine a shaded relief map with contour and base map features.

Post Maps
Post maps show XY locations with fixed size symbols or proportionally scaled symbols of any color.

Create post maps independent of other maps on the page, or combined with other map layers. For each posted point, specify the symbol and label type, size, and angle. Also create classed post maps that identify different ranges of data by automatically assigning a different symbol or color to each data range. Post your sample locations, well locations, or original data point locations on a contour map to show the distribution of data points on the map, and to demonstrate the accuracy of the gridding methods you use.

Use post maps to display the location of your XY data.		Different symbols are used to display different ranges of data in classed post maps. Here, a classed post map is overlaid on a wireframe map and 3D label lines have been added to lift the symbols up off the map surface.

A wireframe map can be used to display any combination of X,Y, and Z lines.
A USGS SDTS DEM file was used to create this map and color zones were defined for the X and Y lines.

• Display any combination of X,Y, and Z lines
• Use automatic or user-defined color zones to highlight different Z levels
• Stack any number of 3D surfaces on a single page
• Optional hidden line removal
• Overlay any combination of contour, filled contour, base, post, and classed post maps on a surface
• Views of the top or bottom of the surface, or both
• Proportional or independent scaling in the X,Y, and Z dimensions
• Full control over axis tick marks and tick labels
• Add a base with optional vertical base lines
• Display the surface at any rotation or tilt angle

Vector maps

Instantly create vector maps in Surfer to show direction and magnitude of data at points on a map. You can create vector maps from information in one grid or two separate grids. The two components of the vector map, direction and magnitude, are automatically generated from a single grid by computing the gradient of the represented surface.

At any given grid node, the direction of the arrow points in the direction of the steepest descent. The magnitude of the arrow changes depending on the steepness of the descent. Two-grid vector maps use two separate grid files to determine the vector direction and magnitude. The grids can contain Cartesian or polar data. With Cartesian data, one grid consists of X component data and the other grid consists of Y component data. With polar data, one grid consists of angle information and the other grid contains length information. Overlay vector maps on contour or wireframe maps to enhance the presentation!

		A vector map of Mt. St. Helens overlaid on a contour map (left) and wireframe map (right). Use a color scale bar or legend to indicate the magnitude of the arrows.

Base Maps

Surfer can import maps in many different formats to display geographic information.
You can combine base maps with other maps in map overlays, or can create stand-alone base maps independent of other maps on the page. You can load any number of base maps on a page. It is easy to overlay a base map on a contour or surface wireframe map, allowing you to display geographic information in combination with the three dimensional data.

Base Map Features

• Edit the line, fill, text and symbol properties for individual objects in a base map
• Globally edit the line, fill, text and symbol properties for all objects in a base map
• Import georeferenced images files in real world coordinates
• Manually georeferenced images files in real world coordinates
• Calculate the area and perimeter length of polygons in a base map
• Copy, paste, reshape, move and delete individual objects in a base map
• Add new objects to a base map
• Adjust the layer opacity
• Import base maps in several formats: AN1, AN2, BLN, BMP, BNA, BW, DCM, DIC, DDF, DLG, DXF, E00, ECW, EMF, GIF, GSB, GSI, JPEG, JPG, LGO, LGS, MIF, PCX, PLT, PLY, PNG, PNM/PPM/PGM/PBM, RAS, RGB, RGBA, SHP, SID, SUN, TGA, TIF, TIFF, VTK, WMF, X, and XIMG.
  

Map layers

Adding multiple map layers to your map gives you a way to combine different types of data in one map. For example, you can drape a georeferenced image over a 3D surface map, overlay multiple base maps with a contour map, or plot a post map with contours over a wireframe map.

And because you can add any number of map layers to a map, you can show any amount of data on a single map. You are limited only by your imagination!

Combining surface maps is an excellent technique to visually compare data sets.		Overlay several surface maps to generate informative block diagrams.
Effortlessly produce vivid and stunning maps that display an array of data! Image courtesy of Igor Yashayaev, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada.		Overlay multiple map layers and adjust the transparency of the upper layers to see the lower layers beneath! This example shows a partially transparent contour map overlaid with a georeferenced image file imported as a base map.

Stacking maps

You can align individual maps horizontally on the page by stacking them. Map stacking was designed to align maps using commensurate coordinate systems. This command is useful for keeping two or more maps separated vertically on the page while keeping relative horizontal positions.

Map Projections

Choose from an endless list of coordinate systems for your map to display. Specify the source coordinate system for each of the layers in your map, and choose to display the map in any other coordinate system! For example, load data and grid files in UTM or State Plane coordinates, and display the map in Latitude/Longitude coordinates! It is simply that easy!

Save the coordinate system information for your grid to an external file for future reuse.

Customize Your Map

Make your map look its best by customizing it to fit your needs! Surfer offers numerous map features to enhance the look of your map. Use Surfer's defaults, or customize your map by including scale bars, editing colors, lines and fill styles, showing only portions of a map, adjusting the scale and setting axis properties!

Image Map Features

• Change the tilt, rotation and field of view angle for the map
• Specify the view projection as perspective or orthographic
• Set XYZ scales in map units or page length
• Choose proportional or independent XY scaling
• Display the map using the data XY limits or choose to display the map using a subset of the data
• Control background fill and line color and styles
• Full control over the axis limits and scaling, axis title, axis line style, tick labels, tick spacing, tick display, and grid lines
  
  

Other Customizations

• Create any number of maps on a single page
• Create independent maps or create a combined map with multiple types of map layers
• Add scale bars
• Add additional axes
• Add text, polylines, polygons, symbols and spline polylines
• Edit text, line, fill and symbol properties
• Set the transparency for images, fill patterns and most map layers
• Define custom line styles and colors
• Add any number of text blocks at any position on the map, using TrueType fonts
• Include superscripts, subscripts and Greek or other characters in text
• Add arrowheads to lines
  

Superior Gridding

The gridding methods in Surfer allow you to produce accurate contour, surface, wireframe, vector, image, and shaded relief maps from your XYZ data. The data can be randomly dispersed over the map area, and Surfer's gridding will interpolate your data onto a grid. Use Surfer's default settings or choose from twelve different gridding methods.

Each gridding method provides complete control over the gridding parameters, so you can produce exactly the map you want. If your data are already collected in a regularly spaced rectangular array, you can create a map directly from your data. Computer generated contour maps have never been more accurate.

Gridding Features

• Interpolate from up to 1 billion XYZ data points (limited by available memory)
• Produce grids with up to 100 million nodes
• Specify faults and breaklines when gridding
• Choose from one of the powerful gridding methods: Inverse Distance, Kriging, Minimum Curvature, Polynomial Regression, Triangulation, Nearest
• Neighbor, Shepard's Method, Radial Basis Functions, Natural Neighbor, Moving Average, and Local Polynomial
• Specify isotropic or anisotropic weighting
• You have full control over the grid line geometry including grid limits, grid spacing, and number of grid lines
• Customize search options based on user-defined data sector parameters
• Specify search ellipses at any orientation and scaling
• Use spline smoothing and grid filtering to alter the grid file
• Use grid math to perform mathematic operations between grid files
• Use Nearest Neighbor to create grid files without interpolation
• Use Triangulation to achieve accuracy with large data sets faster
• Detrend a surface using Polynomial Regression, generate regression coefficients in a report, and calculate residuals
• Use data exclusion filters to eliminate unwanted data
• Use duplicate data resolution techniques
• Generate a grid of Kriging standard deviations
• Specify point or block Kriging
• Generate a report of the gridding statistics and parameters including ANOVA regression statistics
• Specify scales and range for each variogram model
• Generate grids from a user-specified function of two variables
• Calculate grids with Data Metrics including: number of points within search ellipse, distance to nearest and farthest neighbor, median, average and offset distance to points within the search ellipse
• Use cross-validation to judge the suitability of the gridding method for the particular data set
• Save grid files in these formats: ADF, AGR, AIG, AM, ASC, BIL, BIN, BIP, BSQ, COL, DAT, DEM, ERS , FLD, FLT, GGF, GRD, GXF, HDF,IMG, LAT, RAW, and VTK
  

Variograms

Use the variogram modeling subsystem to quantitatively assess the spatial continuity of data. Variograms may be used to select an appropriate variogram model when gridding with the Kriging algorithm. Surfer uses a variogram grid as a fundamental internal data representation and once this grid is built, any experimental variogram can be computed instantaneously.

Variogram Features

• Virtually unlimited data set sizes
• Display both the experimental variogram and the variogram model
• Specify the estimator type: variogram, standardized variogram, auto covariance, or auto correlation
• Specify the variogram model components: exponential, Gaussian, linear, logarithmic, nugget effect, power, quadratic, rational quadratic, spherical, wave, pentaspherical, and cubic models
• Customize the variogram to display symbols, variance, and number of pairs for each lag
• Export the experimental variogram data
• Download variogram tutorial
  
  

Define faults and breaklines when gridding your data. Faults act as barriers to the information flow, and data on one side of the fault will not be directly used to calculate grid node values on the other side of the fault. Breaklines include Z values.

When Surfer sees a breakline, it uses the Z value of the breakline in combination with nearby data points to calculate the grid node value. Unlike faults, breaklines are not barriers to information flow and the gridding algorithm can cross the breakline to use a point on the other side to calculate a grid node value. Use breaklines to define streamlines, ridges, and other breaks in slopes.


The gridding methods that support faults are: Inverse Distance to a Power, Minimum Curvature, Nearest Neighbor, and Data Metrics.

The gridding methods that support breaklines are: Inverse Distance to a Power, Kriging, Minimum Curvature, Nearest Neighbor, Radial Basis Function, Moving Average, Data Metrics, and Local Polynomial.

Original contour map without faults or breaklines.
The same data set gridded with two breaklines and displayed as a contour map.		The same data set gridded with two breaklines and displayed as a contour map.

Grid Functions

In addition to creating maps, you can perform a variety of functions using grid files. Just a few of the possibilities include:

• Directly use the files in native format without modification or conversion.
• Display information about the files, such as X, Y and Z extents or grid statistics.
• Create contour, vector, shaded relief, image, 3D surface, and 3D wireframe maps from the files.

Surfer lets you massage your data in many ways to achieve the exact output you want. Surfer includes a full-featured worksheet for creating, opening, editing, and saving data files. Data files can be up to one billion rows and columns, subject to available memory. You can cut, copy, and paste data within the Surfer worksheet or between applications.

Worksheet Features

• Open files in ACCDB, BLN, BNA, CSV, DAT, DBF, MDB, SLK, TXT, WKx, WRx, XLS, and XLSX formats
• Import a database directly into the Surfer worksheet
• Calculate data statistics
• Perform data transformations using advanced mathematical functions
• Sort data based on primary and secondary columns
• Spatially filter data
• Assign a projection or coordinate system to your data, and convert the data to a new projection or coordinate system
  • Select a predefined coordinate system from Geographic (lat/lon) or one of the supported projected systems (Polar/Arctic/
    Antarctic, Regional/National, State Plane, UTM, and World)
  • Add a frequently used coordinate system to the Favorites list to be easily accessible
  • Assign which columns in the worksheet contain the X, Y and Z data
• Use the Find/Replace function in the worksheet to easily find or replace your data
• Print the worksheet
• Save your data in BLN, BNA, CSV, DAT, SLK, TXT, and XLS formats.

• Export formats include: BLN, BMP, BNA, BW, CGM, 3D DXF, DXF, EMF, EPS, GIF, GSB, JPEG, JPG, KML, KMZ, MIF, PCX, PDF Raster, PDF Vector, PNG, PNM, RAS, RGB, RGBA, 3D SHP, SHP, SUN, TGA, TIF, TIFF, WMF, X, XIMG, and XYZ TXT.
• Reload map data and grid files with a single command
• Substitute a new grid or data file into an existing map without changing the map properties
• Save a grid from a grid-based map, or save a data file from a post or classed post map.
• Display the XYZ coordinates of the cursor location in the status bar
• Windows Clipboard support for copying maps to other applications
• Use the mouse to resize objects on the screen
• Define Surfer's default preferences
• Easily find XYZ coordinates by digitizing point locations
• Automatically save digitized coordinates as BLN or ASCII data files
• Print to any Windows supported printer or plotter
• Display and print subsets of completed maps, complete with subset axes
• Adjust the number of Undo levels
• Use the reshape tool to edit areas and curves
• Click on a map and pinpoint the same XY location in a different map
• Click on a map and highlight the nearest data point to that location in the worksheet
• Create your own keyboard shortcuts for common functions
• Customize the toolbars by adding or removing buttons
• Floatable toolbars
• Download free updates automatically
• Install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Surfer 10

Surfer 10 supports many data, grid, and import/export formats.