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Surfer

Score9 out of 10

7 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Surfer?

Surfer is a data visualization suite from Golden Software in Colorado for oil and gas companies, or other entities in other industries requiring geological or environmental data.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Surfer.
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Flexible and Simple to Use

Incentivized
Pablo Lacerda SilvaView profile
PhD Candidate at The University of British Columbia (10,001+ employees employees)

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.

Return on Investment

  • Surfer has allowed us to quickly create maps out of data imported from other software and GIS databases that either don't offer that function or have too cumbersome of mapping capabilities.

Other Software Used

Petrel E&P, Paradigm

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

Incentivized
Verified User
Employee in Professional Services (1-10 employees employees)

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.

Return on Investment

  • The worst thing about Surfer is the cost. My company can only afford one license at the moment which means only one employee gets to use it regularly. Not so great when someone is sick or you have a huge wave of projects.
  • The user interface is a little rough but younger employees have been great at catching on quickly and producing great images.
  • There's nothing else quite like Surfer. It's versatile and not to difficult to use so, though the licenses are expensive, it is an excellent program that has done wonders for our company!

Other Software Used

Cornerstone Practice Management Software, Moodle, Canvas, Google Forms