Distance measurements surfer 11 and above; or is Surfer 13 worth the upgrade)

[Gareth D Hatton]

Dear All,

I would like to know if anyone has used the inbuilt measurement facility to present distance measurements on our beautiful element distribution maps. It would be great if someone could post an example and suggest how easy it is to do.  I currently have Surfer 10 but would be willing to upgrade to 13 if the functionality is worth it.

I would like a simple way of looking at layer thickness and presenting them on one of the maps.  What I don't really want to have to do is mess around doing it in multiple programmes and having to calibrate the image before taking the measurments, ala ImageJ.

Any ideas and experience with the new versions of Surfer would be great.

[John Donovan]

Dear All,

I would like to know if anyone has used the inbuilt measurement facility to present distance measurements on our beautiful element distribution maps. It would be great if someone could post an example and suggest how easy it is to do.  I currently have Surfer 10 but would be willing to upgrade to 13 if the functionality is worth it.

I would like a simple way of looking at layer thickness and presenting them on one of the maps.  What I don't really want to have to do is mess around doing it in multiple programmes and having to calibrate the image before taking the measurments, ala ImageJ.

Any ideas and experience with the new versions of Surfer would be great.

Hi Gareth,
So you are asking if there is a method in Surfer to display a scale bar in a Surfer project?  I only have Surfer 11, but you can do that and the cursor reads the actual X and Y (and Z) data values as seen here:



If this isn't what you are looking for, could you create a quick "mockup" of exactly what you would like to see in the Surfer annotation capabilities?
john

[Drew Dudley]

Hi John,

Thanks for posting your question, I can answer this. Since version 11, Surfer has a Measure tool that allows you to measure distances and planar areas on screen with a few clicks. The tool works well and is easy to use if your maps have coordinate systems assigned to them and the system is not spherical (Lat/Lon). The measurement display will be in the units that are native to the projection/coordinate system you have your maps set to. For example, if your maps are in UTM meters, then the results will be displayed in meters. This can be changed as well.  If your maps are in Lat/Lon the results will be in decimal degrees. Please note that if you maps are in a defined projection/coordinate system, you can change the system quickly and easily.

Here is an example:
Let's say I want to measure the area of a park in the attached map, I would click the Map | Measure command. The mouse pointer will change to a cross hair and I can simply click around the park boundary to get distance and planar area.



Here is a link to Surfer 13's online Help (http://surferhelp.goldensoftware.com/surfer.htm#t=command%2Fmap%2FMeasure.htm%3Frhhlterm%3Dmeasure%26rhsyns%3D%2520), where this topic is discussed in case anyone is interested in reading more about the Measure tool. My recommendation would be to download and install the free demo version of Surfer 13 so you can fully evaluate the tool. You can download the demo here: http://www.goldensoftware.com/demo-downloads. If it looks good, upgrades are $279 USD.

I hope this helps!
Drew

[John Donovan]

Thanks for posting your question, I can answer this. Since version 11, Surfer has a Measure tool that allows you to measure distances and planar areas on screen with a few clicks. The tool works well and is easy to use if your maps have coordinate systems assigned to them and the system is not spherical (Lat/Lon). The measurement display will be in the units that are native to the projection/coordinate system you have your maps set to. For example, if you maps are in UTM meters, then the results will be displayed in meters. This can be changed as well.  If your maps are in Lat/Lon the results will be in decimal degrees. Please note that if you maps are in a defined projection/coordinate system, you can change the system quickly and easily.

Hi Drew,
Since we are all microscopists here, our map units are in millimeters or microns (0.001 mm) units!   

Will this "measure" feature work in the map units (whatever they are)? 

OK I can answer this question. It appears to work in whatever the X and Y map units are, though without a label. However this should work fine for Gareth as he can also add text annotations to the map.
john

[Gareth D Hatton]

The measurments I want to take and display are much more like Drew Dudley has been showing.  I have requested a demo and will report back on my findings.