Drillholes, Isopachs, and Alpha Shapes. Oh My!
Drillhole maps, isopach calculations and alpha shapes are just a few of the 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. Read below to get a preview of the top new features that are available to anybody with a Surfer license that has active maintenance at no additional cost.
New Map Type – Drillhole Layer
New map type! Create a Drillhole map
A powerful new visualization tool, Surfer easily imports drillhole data to generate a 2D drillhole layer that shows the location, deviation, and path of each hole, core, or well. Manage your data in the brand new Drillhole Manager. You can view the path in a 2D map view and then visualize the drillhole in true 3D!
3D View Improvements
Model your Drillhole map in true 3D
Take Surfer’s brand new map type, the Drillhole layer to the next level by viewing in the 3D View! In the 3D View your well data comes to life with the ability to visualize the wells in true 3D along with its data content (e.g. contaminant concentration, mineralization concentration, assay results, geophysical properties, etc.) Drillhole paths, data points and intervals can be displayed and colorized by data values.
New 3D Symbols
New symbol type for 3D vector data
There is a new symbol type for view point vector data: the sphere. This symbol is a true 3D sphere (like the Cube symbol), which looks good at all angles, even when intersecting surfaces. In previous versions of Surfer, there was a symbol named Sphere, but was in reality a flat 2D circle that is shaded to appear 3D. This flat symbol is still available and has been renamed Shaded circle.
Improved Geoprocessing
Create a tight polygon boundary around data points in post, classed post and base layers or directly from any data file, even in concave areas. Control how tight the polygon is shrink-wrapped to the data limits. The boundary can be a convex hull or a concave hull with holes. Use the polygon boundary for assigning NoData or delineating coverage area.
Isopach and Isochore Calculations
Instant Isopach or Isochore Calculation
Surfer can now quickly and accurately measure the true stratigraphic thickness (isopach) or true vertical thickness (isochore) of a unit or layer regardless of its orientation with the brand new Grid Isopach tool! Use the Grid Isopach tool to measure the thickness of geologic horizons that have been tilted at any angle.
Improved Grid Math
Use Grid Math and Grid Volume on grids with different grid geometry
Do you need to perform mathematical calculations using one or more grid files? Or determine the volume between an upper and lower grid surface? These calculations were always possible in Surfer but only between grid files with identical geometry – a rarity in the real world. Surfer now allows users to perform these calculations with grids of different sizes and different X and Y value extents! This tool also allows you to perform calculations on grids in varying coordinate systems.
Entire list of New Features and Improvements:
- 3D View: Create a true 3D sphere symbol
- 3D View: display drillhole layers in the 3D view to show trajectories, paths, interval data, point data, and labels/leader lines
- Alpha shape: create a tighter boundary around data points (e.g. convex or concave hull) in geoprocessing, Grid Data and Grid from Contours
- Drillhole Manager stores and displays all the drillhole data
- Grid Math and Grid Volume: calculations can use grids that have different sizes (different numbers of rows and columns)
- Grid Math: apply math to XY values, not row column location so the calculations work on grids offset from each other or in different coordinate systems
- Grids: easily create isopach maps (true stratigraphic thickness) or isochore maps (true vertical thickness)
- New Layer Type: 2D Drillhole layer shows drillhole locations, deviation paths and bottom hole location
All users with an active subscription on their license can access the features today! If you are not an active Surfer user click here to test out the latest and greatest today.
