Surfer Tip: Refresh Your Maps with New Versions of Files

There are times when you have your maps just the way you want them, but there are newer versions of the data and grid files. How do you get the new version of the data and grid files into your existing map?

Many of the Surfer map types have a yellow Open Folder icon to the right of the source file name on the General tab of the Properties dialog box. When you click on this icon, you can specify a new file name, or click the Open button to reload the existing file.

Click on the yellow Open Folder icon to reload an existing file
or specify a new file.

This procedure can be especially useful when you are comparing different gridding methods to see which one best represents the data. Overlay a contour map and a post map with the data point labels to compare the contours to the actual data point values. Regrid the data with a different method or search parameters, and substitute the new grid file for the old one.

When you reload your data or grid file, or specify a new grid file, Surfer resets the map limits to the full extents of the map. If you wish to preserve your map limits, use the refresh.bas script from the Golden Software website.

  Surfer 8 Scripts

    http://www.goldensoftware.com/scripts-S.shtml#S-8

If you would like the script to instead prompt for new data files, you will need to change several lines of code in the script.

OLD:

  ovrly.DataFile = ovrly.DataFile 'This line occurs once.

  ovrly.GridFile = ovrly.GridFile 'This line occurs three time.



NEW:

  ovrly.DataFile = GetFilePath(ovrly.DataFile)

  ovrly.GridFile = GetFilePath(ovrly.GridFile)