Create Surface

Surfer can automatically create surfaces for each contact you have defined from your drillhole data. These surfaces, which are visible in the 3D view, are defined by the contact points and can be further customized. Before creating surfaces, you must first create contacts for your drillholes using Create Contact.

Creating and Managing Surfaces

You can create surfaces for all contacts or for individual contacts. To access these options, select the Contacts group or an individual contact within the Drillhole | <Drillhole Layer Name> | Contacts section of the Contents window. In the Properties window select the General tab to view the surface creation options.

You can define the type of contact as either Depositional or Erosional. This setting is crucial as it helps determine how the surface interacts with other surfaces, establishing cross-cutting relationships. The relative age of the contacts is defined by their order in the Create Contacts dialog, with the youngest at the top.

• To create surfaces for all contacts, in the Contents window select the Contacts group, then in the Properties window, select the General tab.

  • Create surfaces for all contacts: Check this box to automatically generate a surface for every contact in the group. If the checkbox has a minus () it indicates that surfaces have been created for some but not all contacts.

• To create surfaces for individual contacts defined in the Contents window, select the specific contact you want to create a surface for in the Contents window. In the Properties window, select the General tab.

  • Create surfaces : Check this box to automatically generate a surface for every contact in the group. If the checkbox is partially filled, it indicates that surfaces have been created for some but not all contacts.

    • Of note

      • If Create surfaces for all contacts was checked, then this is automatically checked.

      • If Create surfaces for all contacts is unchecked, then this is also automatically unchecked.

      • If you check this for some surfaces then Create surfaces for all contacts is set to a minus. ()

      • If you check this for all surfaces then Create surfaces for all contacts is automatically checked.

      • These check boxes no NOT control whether or not the topography or base surfaces are created. These check-boxes (as part of the Contacts group) only controls whether the contact surfaces are created.

  • Type : You can change the contact type (Depositional or Erosional) here. Changing this property will automatically update the generated surface.

    • Depositional: Depositional surfaces cannot cut into an underlying older unit, please note there is only one contact point per unit per drillhole.

    • Erosional: Erosional surfaces can cut into an underlying older unit, please note there is only one contact point per unit per drillhole

Surface Properties - General Tab

When you select the Surfaces group in the Contents window, the Properties window will display General and Gridding tabs for the contact surfaces.

• General Tab: The General tab allows you to save all surface grids, add topography surfaces, and base surfaces. In addition to contact surfaces, you can create topography and base surfaces.
• Gridding: The Gridding tab contains the options to control the gridding parameters for all the surfaces. All the surfaces uses the same gridding parameters.

When you select an individual surface in the Contents window, the Properties window will display a General and Conflicts tabs for that contact's surface.

• General Tab: The surface's color can be customized. By default, surfaces created from a keyword method inherit the color of the lower interval, while others default to the contact symbol color. The topography surface defaults to brown, and the base surface defaults to 50% black.
• Conflicts: The Conflicts page lists any particular conflicts a surface has, and the resolution for that conflict.

You can edit the individual surfaces created from contacts. To access these options, select the individual surface within the Drillhole | <Drillhole Layer Name> | Surfaces section of the Contents window. In the Properties window select the General tab to view the surface editing options.

Surface notes

• You can use Copy Format and Paste Format with surfaces.

• Surfaces can be exported to 3D PDF and VRML.

• Surfaces and the individual surfaces both have context menus

Saving Surfaces

You can save your created surfaces as .GRD files for use in the 2D plot window or other applications.

Save Grid

This is available if an individual surface is selected in Contents under Drillhole | Drillhole | Surfaces. Click Save Grid and the Save Grid As dialog will to allow you to specify a location and grid type to save the grid file for that surface.

Save All Grids

This is available if the Surfaces group or an individual surface is selected in Contents under Drillhole | Drillhole. To save all contact, topography, and base surfaces at once, click the Save All Grids button in the ribbon. The Save All Grid(s) dialog will open and prompt you to choose a folder location to save all the .GRD files, and the format for the grid files.

 

See Also

File | Save

File | Save | Save As