Surfer Reviews & Insights

Score9 out of 10

7 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Surfer are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Flexibility in geostatistical analysis: Users appreciate the flexibility provided by Surfer for geostatistical analysis. Several reviewers have stated that the software offers a wide range of mapping methods and tools, allowing them to perform various tasks such as gridding, contouring, and creating maps for GIS or flow model applications. The ability to build custom scripts using VBA or other programming languages has also been highlighted as a positive aspect.

Intuitive user interface: Surfer's intuitive user interface is highly praised by users. Many reviewers find the interface easy to follow and navigate, making it a great tool for 2D and 3D mapping, modeling, and analysis. They appreciate the contextual help and intuitive menus that make it easier to use the software effectively. The clear GUI/toolbar and point cloud feature are also mentioned as positive aspects of the user interface.

Speed and control in mapping algorithms: Users value Surfer for its speed, control, and wide range of mapping algorithms. Multiple reviewers have described the software as powerful yet user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that can be easily picked up even by undergraduates. The automation feature allows for quick renderings of 3D terrain models with gridded data, providing efficient results in a timely manner.

Reviews

2 Reviews

Want a program to enhance your environmental reports? Try Surfer!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 18, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My company uses Surfer to create 2D and 3D images to represent the data we collect in the field. It is a small company so most employees use it for data processing and reports. It has been excellent for us to produce better images and improve the quality of our reports and assessments sent to clients.

Pros

3D surface maps are easy with Surfer and take a report to a whole new level.
It's an easy to learn program with accessible tech support when needed.
Data input is made simple as long as you stick to their (simple) guidelines.

Cons

The user interface can be tricky at first. It's a little rough around the edges and takes a little time to get the hang of.
Not an ideal application for older employees. There are too many things with the interface that make it not worthwhile to train employees with less computer experience.
Manipulating data within Surfer is difficult because you have to do things in a certain order. Not terrible if you get the hang of it but certainly frustrating at first.

Likelihood to Recommend

Surfer has been excellent for us, a small company, to process the electrical resistivity, refraction microtremor, and MASW data collected in the field. There are an increasing number of programs capable of assisting in this geophysical analysis but Surfer is the most advanced. The ability to create both 2D and 3D figures in the program while managing data is a huge help. It also greatly improved report quality and helped clients better understand what the results were for a study.

Verified User

Employee in Professional Services (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Flexible and Simple to Use

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 9, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Within our university, our department of Geological Sciences uses Surfer for various applications related to mapping geologic horizons, such as structural maps, reservoir thickness maps, and contouring of geological properties maps. The undergraduate students need to use it to complete projects for more than one course. Some graduate students, including those of my research group, use Surfer to contour data and generate maps related to our research, and publish in reports and articles.

Pros

The interface is simple and easy/quick to learn, so that not much experience is needed to start generating maps.
The map layouts are easy to manipulate, change colors, scale, labels, contour interval, etc...
Simple but functional mathematical and logical functions allow for the calculation and manipulation of grids.

Cons

It would be nice to establish the grid geometry graphically and/or copy it from an existing grid with only a couple of clicks.
The profile tool is good for making cross sections, but there's no way, that I know of, that you can create a combined profile of two or more stacked maps.

Likelihood to Recommend

Surfer is really handy for creating quick and nice looking geologic contour maps without too much knowledge of interpolation algorithms. It also allows for the integration of georeferenced routine polygons from a variety of sources, including shapefile. If you need to look at multiple maps in a GIS fashion, the graphic interface is not well suited to scroll through large data sets.

Pablo Lacerda Silva

PhD Candidate at The University of British Columbia (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

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