Introduzione
in Italiano
A Powerful Contouring, Gridding,
and Surface Mapping Package for Scientists and Engineers
Surfer è
il software leader per la mappatura, la modellazione e l'analisi dati.
Permette di convertire
i dati nei seguenti tipi di mappe: contour, 3D wireframe,
vector, image, shaded relief, post, base.
La mappa può essere scelta tra quelle in archivio o creata
miscelando gli elementi di diverse mappe; può essere poi personalizzata
in tutti i suoi elementi al fine di arrivare al risultato
desiderato.
Con Surfer la produzione di mappe di qualità è non è mai stata
cosi veloce e semplice.
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Visualize Data
You work hard gathering your data. Don’t settle for subpar
visualization. Utilize Surfer’s extensive modeling tools to display your
data the way it deserves while maintaining accuracy and precision.
Clearly communicate information with Surfer.
Surfer appears to have been designed by people who really understand
what scientists like myself want to do. This allows me to look at data
and ask questions without being concerned with the technicalities of how
to load, manipulate and map data.
Barry Gardiner, Senior Scientist
Image courtesy of Alain Paillou, Amateur Astronomer
Analyze Data
Discover the depths of your data with Surfer’s numerous analysis
tools. Adjust interpolation and gridding parameters, assess the spatial
continuity of data with variograms,
define faults and breaklines, or
perform grid calculations such as volumes, transformations, smoothing,
or filtering. Surfer quickly transforms your data into knowledge.
The wide variety and functionality of the
interpolation/extrapolation algorithms, as well as the geostatistical
functionality, is simply awesome!
Grant van Heerden, Principal Coal Geologist
Snowden Mining Industry Consultants
Communicate Results
Communicate your hard-earned findings with confidence. Whether it is
for your project manager, thesis advisor, or client, Surfer facilitates a
complete and thorough understanding of data.
You make awesome products that give me the ability to present data in
clear, concise, visually appealing ways to help my clients understand
the concepts we are presenting.
Jeff Mattson
Trusted Since 1983
Surfer has withstood the tests of time. See
for yourself why thousands of scientists and engineers across the globe
trust Surfer to display their data.
Surfer is actively used in the following industries:
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- Agriculture
- Archaeology
- Construction
- Education
- Energy
- Environmental
- Exploration
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- Geophysical
- Geotechnical
- Geothermal
- GIS
- Government
- Maritime
- Military
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- Mining
- Mudlogging
- Oil & Gas
- Renewable Energy
- UAV / UAS
- Utilities
- Water Resources
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We Are Here to Help
Expert advice and learning is a click away. We're here to help you through every stage of your project.
Create Professional Maps
Easily communicate both simple and complex spatial data. Surfer gives
you the tools to create high-quality maps to clearly deliver your
message to coworkers, clients, and stakeholders.
Surfer Map Types | |
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- Contour
- Base
- Post
- 3D Surface
- Color Relief
- Classed Post
- 3D Wireframe
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- 1-Grid Vector
- 2-Grid Vector
- Watershed
- Grid Value
- Viewshed
- Point Cloud
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Image courtesy of Igor Yashayaev, Bedrod Institute of Oceanography, Canada
Model Data in Multi-Dimensions
Gain deeper insights into your data when viewed in three-dimensional
space. Surfer’s 3D viewer makes it easy to model, analyze, and
understand all aspects of your data. Switching between Surfer’s 2D and
3D perspectives ensures you discover all of your data’s patterns and
trends.
Achieve a 360° Perspective |
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- View point data in true 3D space
- Rotate your map
- Walk along the surface
- Adjust the vertical exaggeration
- Add X, Y or Z axes to gain a frame of reference
- Note the X, Y or Z position of the cursor in the status bar
- Create and record fly-through videos to share with others
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LiDAR Point Clouds
LiDAR is an increasingly popular data collection method used within
many fields including archaeology, surveying, GIS, and more. Use
Surfer’s extensive LiDAR processing and visualization features to take
advantage of all that LiDAR has to offer.
Surfer's LiDAR Point Cloud Features | |
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- Create a point cloud from multiple LAS/LAZ files
- Assign color by elevation, intensity, return number, or classification
- Select points interactively or by criteria
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- Remove, reclassify or crop to selected points
- Create a grid from the point cloud or export to LAS/LAZ
- Visualize all aspects of the data in the 3D view
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Surfer's LAS/LAZ Filtering Options | |
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- Spatial filtering based on XY bounds or elevation data limits
- Import every Nth point
- Import only the desired Return type or Classification values
- Import data with specified Source ID
- Flag filters such as scan direction, edge of flight, or synthetic, key, and withheld points
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Streamlined Workflows
You will be up and running in matter of minutes. Surfer’s user
interface was designed to take the guesswork out of learning a new
program. We worked hard to streamline workflows so you don’t have to.
Surfer User Interface Features | |
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- Welcome dialog to get you started
- Map wizard to quickly create maps and models
- Customize ribbon and quick access toolbar
- Dock or float all windows
- Single window to view, edit, and manipulate the data and maps
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- Contents window to easily manage layers of maps and models
- Properties window for quick feature editing
- Worksheet window to view or edit raw data
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Enhance Maps & Models
Surfer gives you the tools to visualize and model all types of data,
but it doesn’t stop there. Surfer’s extensive customization options
allow you to convey complex ideas in an easy to understand manner.
Enhance your maps and models with a variety of customizations options.
Surfer Customization Options | |
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- Add legends, cross sections, magnifiers, scale bars, and multiple axes
- Include headers and footers
- Apply linear or logarithmic color scales
- Adjust tilt, rotation, and field of view angle
- Edit all axis parameters
- Include graticule lines or another grid
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- Combine or stack multiple maps
- Define custom line styles and colors
- Edit text, line, fill and symbol properties
- Add text, polylines, polygons, symbols, and spline polylines
- Include range rings
- Many more…
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Full Grid Control
Surfer gives you extensive control over grid files. Create isopach
maps for structural geology, calculate volumes for inventory management
or derivatives for terrain analysis, and even create site suitability
models all with grid files. Achieve a complete understanding of your
underlying data.
Surfer Grid Features | |
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- Directly edit the underlying grid data
- Calculate volume and area of grids
- Add, subtract, multiply, and divide grids
- Perform custom mathematical functions on grids
- Calculate differential and integral operations or Fourier and spectral analysis
- Convert areas to nodata
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- Project grids from one coordinate system to another
- Mosaic multiple grids together seamlessly
- Transform, offset, rescale, rotate, or mirror grids
- Filter grids with high- and low-pass filters
- Extract smaller areas from a grid
- Subtract the Z in the grid from the original Z
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Edit Contours
Edit contour lines down to the finest detail. Surfer’s grid editor
lets you quickly adjust contour lines by interactively editing the
underlying grid file. Brush, warp, smooth, push down or up, and erase
grid nodes, and immediately see the changes to your grid-based maps.
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- Perform free-hand contour editing
- Brush specific Z values across nodes
- Smooth contours
- Pull up or push down contours in specific areas
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- Warp contour lines
- Erase parts of the contour map
- Find the Z value at any XY point location
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Grid Data with Certainty
Have complete confidence in the accuracy of your model. Surfer
provides numerous interpolation methods to grid regularly or irregularly
spaced data onto a grid or raster, and each interpolation method
provides complete control over gridding parameters. Plus, no time is
wasted with multithreaded gridding!
Surfer Gridding Methods | |
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- Kriging
- CoKriging
- Inverse Distance
- Minimum Curvature
- Natural Neighbor
- Triangulation with Linear Interpolation
- Nearest Neighbor
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- Local Polynomial
- Polynomial Regression
- Data Metrics
- Radial Basis Function
- Modified Shepard's Method
- Moving Average
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Surfer Interpolation Features | |
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- Variogram models
- Anisotropy
- Kriging with external drift
- Faults and breaklines
- Control over search neighborhood size, shape, and constraints
- Data filtering
- Automatic data statistics
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- Create grid files directly from contour polylines
- Grid to convex hull
- Duplicate handling
- Cross validation
- Control over output geometry and resolution
- Limit or clamp z-values
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Make Meaningful Decisions
Get answers to your questions with Surfer’s geoprocessing tools.
Process your data and analyze relationships. Narrow down areas of
interest, highlight important intersections, or perform mathematical
calculations on the underlying data to make informed decisions.
Surfer Geoprocessing Tools | |
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- View, create, edit and delete object attributes using the convenient Attribute Table
- Calculate attribute values
- Query objects based on attribute values
- Perform Delaunay triangulation
- Reshape, simplify, smooth polylines, polygons, and grids
- Create buffers around points, polylines, and polygons
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- Convert between polygons and polylines
- Create polygons by combining existing polygons
- Create points or polygons in intersecting areas
- Connect or break polylines at specified locations
- Combine and split islands
- Georeference images
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Surfer Symbology | |
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- Apply line, fill, and symbol properties based on attribute values
- Display symbology in the legend
- Select symbology based on unique values, unclassed colors and symbols, and classed colors and symbols
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Immediate Access to Online Data
An abundance of data is at your fingertips waiting to be visualized.
Surfer gives you immediate access to worldwide aerial imagery, Open
Street Map imagery, worldwide vector data, and terrain data. If you have
your own favorite data servers or access to a private data server,
include a custom link to that source for easy access. Surfer makes it
easy to access the surplus of online data.
Supported server types:
- Web mapping server (WMS)
- Open Street Map server (OSM)
- Web coverage server (WCS)
- Web feature server (WFS)
Work Seamlessly with all Coordinate Systems
Your job is to transform data into valuable visualizations. Surfer’s
job is to make it easy for you. Surfer effortlessly manages unreferenced
data and data projected in different/multiple coordinate systems. It
really is that easy.
Surfer Coordinate System Features | |
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- Over 2500 predefined coordinate systems
- Create custom coordinate systems
- Search coordinate systems by name or EPSG number
- Reproject coordinate systems
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- Over 80 ellipsoids
- Over 45 predefined linear units
- Create custom linear units
- Add graticule or grid lines to view different coordinate systems on a map
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Image courtesy of Eric Dickenson, Environmental Science and Engineering Division, Colorado School of Mines.
Complete Compatibility
Seamlessly visualize and analyze data from multiple sources. Surfer natively reads numerous file formats
including SHP, DXF, and XLSX. Surfer also supports all popular export
formats. An extensive set of data management tools are at your disposal
for complete compatibility.
Collaborate with Confidence
Quickly share your work with colleagues, stakeholders, and clients.
Surfer models are ready for printed publication with the high quality
export formats including PDF or TIF. Alternatively, share your work
online with web compatible formats like JPG or PNG. If you are preparing
for a presentation, simply copy and paste your map or model into
presentation tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Word.
PDF snippet courtesy of Alecos Demetriades, Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration.
Demetriades,
A., 2011. The Lavrion urban geochemistry study, Hellas. Chapter 25 In:
C.C. Johnson, A. Demetriades, J. Locutura & R.T. Ottesen (Editors),
Mapping the chemical environment of urban areas. Wiley-Blackwell, John
Wiley & Sons Ltd., Chichester, U.
Work Smart, Not Hard with Automation
Don’t waste time doing the same process over and over. Create scripts to automate repetitive or recurring tasks. Surfer can be called from any automation-compatible programming languages such as C , Python, or Perl. Surfer also ships with Scripter, a built-in Visual Basic compatible scripting tool.
Save time with automation, and save even more time by reviewing the extensive set of sample scripts in the Surfer Automation Knowledge Base!
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There are a ton of awesome new features in the latest release of Surfer! We focused on increasing processing speed, optimizing workflows to maximize your efficiency, and we included a lot of exciting new features as well. The top new features are listed below. A more complete list of the new features can be found on the Surfer Version History page.
Mapping improvements
1. Create Peaks and Depressions maps
You can now create maps showing peaks and depressions with this new feature in Surfer! Highlight zones in which drainage flows away from (peaks) or into (depressions) closed contours. Useful for those working in water resources and geohazard identification, this new features allows quick terrain evaluation and the ability to quickly spot sinkholes or other important karst morphology, fracture zones, lineaments and ridgelines. This new layer type is created from a grid file and it identifies the peaks and depressions in the grid by drawing a polygon around these areas. Color peaks and depressions separately, add directional hachures, label the maxima and minima, and work on a local or map-wide scale. Generate statistical reports for your peaks and depressions that calculates area, volume, orientation, and more!

Create a map of Peaks & Depressions, and generate statistical reports
2. Use a field from the Attribute Table for the Object Name
You can now name the vector objects in a Base(vector) layer using an attribute column in the associated Attribute Table. This means that you no longer need to manually rename each object, or have them all default to the names of Polygon, Polyline, Point and so on. Label county boundary polygons with their name or FIPS code, or name your boreholes by their Well-ID. Finding the right object in your long list just became a whole lot easier!
 
Easily turn the object naming on the left into the one on the right - much more useful!
Workflow improvements
3. Calculate individual grid volumes within a collection of polygons
If you have a Base(vector) layer or vector file containing multiple polygons, you can now calculate volumes from a grid within each polygon individually, all in one step. Calculate either the combined volumes for every polygon, or split the report into volumetric data for each individual polygon. Combing this with the new naming objects by attribute feature above, and have each polygon identified clearly by name in the Grid Volume report. This is a big time saver, and no need to use scripting!

Get volumetric data within each of your county polygons in a single Base(vector) layer
4. Calculate individual grid statistics within a collection of polygons
Similar to the new functionality above, statistics generated via Grid Info can now also be calculated for individual polygons in a multi-polygon Base(vector) layer or vector file.

Get grid statistics reports within each individual polygon in a single Base(vector) layer
3D View improvements
5. Add Color Scales to the 3D View
It is now possible to display one or more color scales in the 3D View for your points, surfaces and contours. Display a different color scale for each object in the 3D View that uses a colormap. You can have as many as you need. Export your model with colormaps for use in your next stakeholder report.
6. Export to VRML (.WRL) format
Export your 3D models from the 3D View to VRML format. This 3D Vector model data format is great for working in CAD, and can be manipulated directly in 3D printing software. 3D print some surface models from the VRML format for your next in-person presentation! You can also use this file format in a variety of different 3D modelling software programs such as Cortana, MeshLab, 3DMax, and more.
7. Light point objects using the Environment Lighting
You can now opt to have 3D point objects (cubes and spheres) use the same Environment lighting that applies to your surfaces. Create a consistent source-lit scene that looks great in reports and presentations.

8. Antialiasing
Graphics in the 3D View are now much smoother with the addition of antialiasing. Visual artifacts such as jagged edges, missing parts of lines, and more patterns are now smoothed out for users with modern graphics cards. This smoothing is also maintained during export to image functions and when copying to the clipboard

Smooth grid lines, text and points with antialiasing
Automation improvements
9. New functions available via automation
We've now added a lot of the newer functionality in Surfer to the automation model.
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Create Base from Data map layers via automation
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Use Base Symbology for Base layers via automation
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Use Grid Z Limits when gridding data via automation
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Use a Z Transform when gridding data via automation
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Save and load the Grid Data settings file (*.SRFGDS) via automation
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Set the Map Frame scaling ratio via automation
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Modify the map scale bar options via automation
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Add top-level Legend objects via automation
- Specify and call new Local Coordinate System via automation
- Windows 7, 8 (excluding RT), 10 or higher
- 32-bit and 64-bit operation system support
- 1024x768 or higher monitor resolution
with minimum 16-bit color depth
- At least 500 MB free hard disk space
- At least 512 MB RAM
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