Grid from Server

Click the Grids | New Grid | Grid from Server command or the button to download data from an online web mapping server and create a new grid file. Clicking the Grid from Server command opens the Download Online Grids dialog.

The Download Online Grids dialog can also be accessed from the Open Grid dialog by clicking Download. The downloaded grid will be used to create a grid-based map layer or in the following grid command dialog, depending on which command was used to open the Open Grid dialog.

When using the Download Online Grids dialog, a server with appropriate data must be selected. Surfer currently supports four types of servers, web mapping server (WMS), Open Street Map server (OSM), web coverage server (WCS), and web feature server (WFS). WMS, OSM, WCS, and WFS servers provide different types data.

  • When selecting a WMS or OSM server, an image is downloaded to be used as a grid file. There are no Z values associated with the image. When the image is used as a grid file, a value between 0 and 1 is assigned to each pixel in the image based on the color of that pixel. WMS and OSM servers are generally used to create base maps with the Home | New Map | Base | Base from Server command.
  • When selecting a WCS server, data values are downloaded to be used as a grid file.
  • When selecting a WFS server, vector data is downloaded with points, polylines, and/or polygons representing features. WFS servers cannot be used with the Grid from Server command.

See Also

Open Grid

Download Online Grids

Grids Tab Commands