Demonstration Video

Surfer 9 - Part 11
Calculating Length and Area
Of Polylines and Polygons
PART 11
1. Introduction
2. Calculating the Area and Length of Objects in Base Maps
3. Calculating the Area and Length of Drawn Objects

1. Welcome to Golden Software’s demonstration video for Surfer 9 – Part 11. In this demonstration I’ll
be covering the topic of calculating the length and area for polylines and polygons on a map.

Surfer reports the length and area of any polyline and polygon in a base map. This means you can
import a base map and see the length and area of objects that already exist in the base map; or, you
can create any type of map, such as a contour map, add an empty base layer to it, and simply draw
polylines and polygons on top of the map to find the area and length. I will go over both of these
options.

2. To import a file as a base map, simply go to Map | New | Base Map. Select the base map file you
want to open. For this example, I’ll select the CentralCalifornia GSI file, which is included in the Surfer
Samples folder in versions 9.8 and above. After the file is selected, click Open. The base map is
imported. In the Object Manager, I can see the Map object which contains one map layer, called
Base.

I’ll go to View | Fit to Window so we can see the map a little more clearly.

The GSI file I choose to import is in UTM coordinates, and so the map has the same UTM
coordinates on the X and Y axes, with units of meters.

I’ll double click on this polygon which is the county of San Joaquin, and go to the Info tab. The
Perimeter length and planar Area is reported for this polygon. The perimeter length units are in
meters, and the area units are in m2 because the X and Y units are both meters. If your X and Y units
were feet, then the length would be in feet and the area would be in square feet.

I’ll click OK to close this dialog.

3. You can also find the area or length of a region on your map simply by drawing a polyline or polygon
on top of it as part of a base map object.

a. I’ll first start by opening a new plot window by going to File | New | Plot.

b. I’ll create a contour map by going to Map | New | Contour Map, selecting Golden.grd, and
clicking Open. This map is also in UTM coordinates with the X and Y units in meters.

c. This closed contour area is a local high, which is called North Table Mountain. Let’s say you
want to measure the distance of North Table Mountain in the longest direction. All we have to
do is draw a line as part of a base map. First, right click over the map and go to Add | Empty
Base Layer. This will add an empty base layer to the map group, which you can see in the
Object Manager. I’ll press the + button to expand the Base layer group, but it is empty so
there are no objects listed.

1
 d. Right click over the Base layer in the Object Manager and go to Enter Group.

e. Now we can draw our objects as part of the base layer group. I’ll go to Draw | Polyline and
simply draw the polyline from here to here. Double click to finish the polyline. You can see
that the polyline was added to the Base layer group. You can draw as many polylines as you
wish. When you are done, press the Esc key on the keyboard to exit drawing mode.

f. I’ll double click on the polyline. First, I’ll go to the Line tab and change the Color of the
polyline to blue, increase the Width value to 0.02, and click Apply. This is so we can see it a
little better.

g. Then I’ll go to the Info tab and see the length of the polyline. This length is in meters because
my X and Y units are both meters. I’ll click OK to close the dialog.

h. If you don’t want to see the polyline on your map, you can simply uncheck it in the Object
Manager. Alternatively you can hit the Delete key on the keyboard to delete it.

i. There is a similar process for finding the area of polygons. For example, I can go to Draw |
Polygon, hold the mouse button down and draw a polygon over my map. I’ll double click to
end the polygon. This polygon is now added to the Base layer, which you can see in the
Object Manager.

j. I’ll double click on this polygon, first go the Line tab and change the Color and Width of the
line and click Apply.

k. Then I’ll go to the Info tab, and see the perimeter length and the area of the polygon I drew.

l. I’ll click OK to close the dialog.

m. To exit the base layer group, right click over the Base layer in the Object Manager and go to
Exit Group.

This concludes my demonstration of calculating the length and area of polylines and polygons in
Surfer 9.