‘SURFER’ SOFTWARE

REPORT

INSTRUCTED BY:
Dr. J.C.P.H. Gamage

NAME : H.H.N.D.Haggalla
INDEX : 140197U
DATE OF SUB : 16 / 10 /2017
 INTRODUCTION TO THE SOFTWARE

This is a versatile software that is capable of creating contour maps, 3Dmaps, 3D surfaces and also
performing earthwork volume calculations. The most common application of Surfer is to create a
grid-based map from an XYZ data file. The Grid | Data command uses an XYZ data file to produce a
grid file. The grid file is then used by most of the Map menu commands to produce maps such as
contour maps, surface maps, wireframe maps, shaded relief maps etc. Post maps and base maps do
not use grid files.

CREATING AN ‘XYZ’ DATA FILE

An XYZ data file is a file containing at least three columns of data values. The first two columns are
the X and Y coordinates for the data points. The third column is the Z value assigned to the XY
point. Although it is not required, entering the X coordinate in Column A, the Y coordinate in Col-
umn B, and the Z value in Column C is a good idea. Surfer looks for these coordinates in these col-
umns by default. We can either create a new data file or use the data available in an existing file. By
opening the existing data file through Surfer we can import the data into respected columns. Other-
wise we can just open a new worksheet and enter the data into columns respectively. In our session
we used an existing data file to plot the maps.

CREATING A GRID FILE

Grid files are required to produce a grid-based map. Grid-based maps include contour maps, image
maps, shaded relief maps, 1-grid vector maps, 2-grid vector maps, wireframes, and surfaces. Grid
files are created using the Grid | Data command. In our session we only created 4 types of maps and
for we selected the triangulation with linear interpolation as the gridding method to create the grid-
ding report. An extract of the gridding report of our session is as follows.
——————————
Gridding Report
——————————
Thu Oct 26 13:51:08 2017
Elasped time for gridding: 0.02 seconds

Data Source
Source Data File Name: C:\Users\vinidu\Desktop\kumas.txt
X Column: C
Y Column: B
Z Column: D

Data Counts
Active Data: 289

Original Data: 289

Excluded Data: 0
Deleted Duplicates: 0
Retained Duplicates: 0
Artificial Data: 0
Superseded Data: 0

Univariate Statistics
————————————————————————————————————————————
X Y Z
————————————————————————————————————————————
Minimum: 1935.149 1810.615 98.233
25%-tile: 2012.875 1888.979 102.055
Median: 2088.889 1925.7 107.364
75%-tile: 2111.873 1957.622 109.997
Maximum: 2140.233 2004.987 114.374

Midrange: 2037.691 1907.801 106.3035

Range: 205.084 194.372 16.141
Interquartile Range: 98.998 68.643 7.942
Median Abs. Deviation: 31.823 35.506 4.039

Mean: 2065.6642941176 1923.5894878893 106.60126989619

Trim Mean (10%): 2067.7980804598 1924.5675095785 106.61911111111
Standard Deviation: 53.130952639173 47.290943097737 4.576067333265
Variance: 2822.898128346 2236.4332990734 20.940392238575

Coef. of Variation: 0.042926949535602

Coef. of Skewness: -0.14204165419991
————————————————————————————————————————————
Inter-Variable Correlation
————————————————————————————
X Y Z
————————————————————————————
X: 1.000 -0.119 0.891
Y: 1.000 -0.455
Z: 1.000
————————————————————————————

Inter-Variable Covariance
————————————————————————————————
X Y Z
————————————————————————————————
X: 2822.898128346 -298.79350233381 216.63964977529
Y: 2236.4332990734 -98.427257346212
Z: 20.940392238575
————————————————————————————————

Planar Regression: Z = AX+BY+C

Fitted Parameters
————————————————————————————————————————————
A B C
————————————————————————————————————————————
Parameter Value: 0.073119322566704 -0.034241879206416 21.428614947124
Standard Error: 0.0014740901397915 0.00165612712018 4.6619477633569
————————————————————————————————————————————

Inter-Parameter Correlations
————————————————————————————
A B C
————————————————————————————
A: 1.000 -0.119 -0.734
B: 1.000 0.761
C: 1.000
————————————————————————————

ANOVA Table
————————————————————————————————————————————
Source df Sum of Squares Mean Square F
————————————————————————————————————————————
Regression: 2 5551.9439413352 2775.9719706676 1588.4
Residual: 286 499.82941561146 1.7476552993408
Total: 288 6051.7733569467
————————————————————————————————————————————

Coefficient of Multiple Determination (R^2): 0.91740777683987

Nearest Neighbor Statistics

—————————————————————————————————
 Separation |Delta Z|
—————————————————————————————————
Minimum: 0.0076157731058928 0.00099999999999056
25%-tile: 1.407460479019 0.043999999999997
Median: 3.0024823063592 0.15100000000001
75%-tile: 4.8710518371293 0.458
Maximum: 12.771023334095 12.666

Midrange: 6.3893195536005 6.3335

Range: 12.763407560989 12.665
Interquartile Range: 3.4635913581103 0.414
Median Abs. Deviation: 1.7745327959964 0.125

Mean: 3.3730694122186 0.36250173010381

Trim Mean (10%): 3.2164105061453 0.27999616858238
Standard Deviation: 2.5209354884438 0.81909078263927
Variance: 6.3551157368953 0.67090971020462

Coef. of Variation: 0.74737136428678 2.2595499955399

Coef. of Skewness: 0.83992949754828 11.861848840481

Root Mean Square: 4.2110227969627 0.89572161664932

Mean Square: 17.73271299654 0.80231721453287
—————————————————————————————————

Complete Spatial Randomness

Lambda: 0.0072499057374782
Clark and Evans: 0.57440928840475
Skellam: 233.44536532746

Exclusion Filtering
Exclusion Filter String: Not In Use

Duplicate Filtering
Duplicate Points to Keep: First
X Duplicate Tolerance: 2.4E-005
Y Duplicate Tolerance: 2.3E-005

No duplicate data were found.

Breakline Filtering
Breakline Filtering: Not In Use

Gridding Rules
Gridding Method: Triangulation with Linear Interpolation
Anisotropy Ratio: 1
Anisotropy Angle: 0
Output Grid
Grid File Name: C:\Users\vinidu\Desktop\kumas.grd
Grid Size: 95 rows x 100 columns
Total Nodes: 9500
Filled Nodes: 6159
Blanked Nodes: 3341

Grid Geometry

X Minimum: 1935.149
X Maximum: 2140.233001
X Spacing: 2.0715555656566

Y Minimum: 1810.615
Y Maximum: 2004.987
Y Spacing: 2.0677872340426

Grid Statistics

Z Minimum: 98.316151748846
Z 25%-tile: 101.70994117241
Z Median: 105.44682183136
Z 75%-tile: 109.8086076683
Z Maximum: 114.32430969117

Z Midrange: 106.32023072001
Z Range: 16.008157942325
Z Interquartile Range: 8.0986664958827
Z Median Abs. Deviation: 4.0299155102599

Z Mean: 105.71900919742
Z Trim Mean (10%): 105.68771771257
Z Standard Deviation: 4.4961364756787
Z Variance: 20.215243207929

Z Coef. of Variation: 0.04252912044685

Z Coef. of Skewness: 0.099628312099105

Z Root Mean Square: 105.814574369

Z Mean Square: 11196.724148892
 CREATING A CONTOUR MAP

A contour map is a two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional data. Contours define lines

of equal Z values across the map extents. The shape of the surface is shown by the contour lines.
Contour maps can display the contour lines; they can also display colors and patterns between the
contour lines. Using the Map | Contour Map command we can create contour maps. We can choose
the grid file needed and plot a new contour map accordingly. By double clicking on the plotted map
we can change the colors of the contour lines, fill in between contour lines, change contour levels,
change line types etc.
Moreover it can be exported to AutoCAD file and do more modifications using AutoCAD. In our
session we changed the scale of the contour map using AutoCAD.
 CREATING A WIREFRAME MAP

Wireframes are three-dimensional representations of a grid file. Wireframes are block diagrams gen-
erated by drawing lines representing the grid X and Y lines (the grid columns and rows). At each in-
tersection of a column and row (i.e. at each grid node), the height of the surface is proportional to the
grid Z value at that point. The number of columns and rows in the grid file determines the number of
X and Y lines drawn on the wireframe.
 CREATING A SURFACE MAP

The Map | Surface command can be used to create a three-dimensional shaded rendering from a grid
file. The height of the surface corresponds to the Z value of the associated grid node. Denser grids
show greater detail on the surface. Color can be used to show Z values on surfaces. The colors are
blended to form a smooth gradation. Once the color is selected, the lighting can be adjusted, chang-
ing the appearance of the map. Surfaces can be overlaid with bitmaps, vector files, and other surfac-
es. You can overlay other map types, with the exception of wireframes, on a surface.
 CREATING A SHADED RELIEF MAP

Shaded relief maps are raster maps based on grid files. These maps use colors to indicate the local
orientation of the surface relative to a user-defined light source direction. Surfer determines the ori-
entation of each grid cell and calculates reflectance of a point light source on the grid surface. The
light source can be thought of as the sun shining on a topographic surface. Portions of the surface
that face away from the light source reflects less light toward the viewer, and thus appear darker. The
colors on a shaded relief map are based on the reflectance from the grid surface. Reflectance values
range from zero to one. A reflectance value of zero means that no light is reflected toward the view-
er. A reflectance value of one means that all incident light is reflected toward the viewer. Because
colors are assigned to entire grid cells, sparse grids (grids with relatively few rows and columns) are
poor candidates for shaded relief maps. Shaded relief maps based on grids with too few cells look
blocky or fuzzy. We can assign colors to represent the various reflectance values. Colors between the
assigned values are automatically blended to make a smooth gradation. Blanked regions on shaded
relief maps are shown as a separate color. Any color scheme chosen for a shaded relief map may be
used with any other shaded relief map, even if the associated grid files result in significantly different
orientations of the surface relative to the light source. Color schemes can be saved in Color Spectrum
files [.CLR].
 EARTHWORK VOLUME CALCULATIONS

By using the Grid | Grid volume command we can calculate most appropriate elevation level to per-
form the cut and fill operations effectively. In our session we carefully examined the contour map
and chose the mid-level of the contour levels and performed the grid volume calculation by changing
that mid value until the cut volume was almost equal to fill volume. An extract of the grid report of
our calculation for the most suitable elevation level is as follows.

————————————————
Grid Volume Computations
————————————————
Thu Oct 26 14:28:33 2017

Upper Surface
Grid File Name: C:\Users\vinidu\Desktop\kumas.grd
Grid Size: 95 rows x 100 columns

X Minimum: 1935.149
X Maximum: 2140.233001
X Spacing: 2.0715555656566

Y Minimum: 1810.615
Y Maximum: 2004.987
Y Spacing: 2.0677872340426

Z Minimum: 98.316151748846
Z Maximum: 114.32430969117

Lower Surface
Level Surface defined by Z = 105.719

Volumes
Z Scale Factor: 1

Total Volumes by:

Trapezoidal Rule: 0.24264908549661

Simpson's Rule: -122.16663337486
Simpson's 3/8 Rule: 19.757891824727

Cut & Fill Volumes

Positive Volume [Cut]: 52154.578483426

Negative Volume [Fill]: 52154.33583434
Net Volume [Cut-Fill]: 0.24264908571786

Areas
Planar Areas

Positive Planar Area [Cut]: 12545.150437987

Negative Planar Area [Fill]: 13158.208249737
Blanked Planar Area: 14159.228754649
Total Planar Area: 39862.587442372

Surface Areas

Positive Surface Area [Cut]: 12957.863127032

Negative Surface Area [Fill]: 13573.706888282