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Issue 60

Taking Advantage of the New and Improved Base Map Functionality!

Base maps in Surfer are very important for displaying information on your maps, such as roads, well locations, section and township lines, etc. Flexibility with base maps has come a long way with Surfer 9. Surfer 9 allows you to edit, create and remove individual base map items, in addition to calculating the area and length of polylines and polygons. You can also create an empty base layer and add drawn objects to it (such as text, symbols, polylines and polygons) so that they are rescaled and moved with the map. These new features make displaying and obtaining the information and data you need quicker and easier than ever before.

This article will go over four common uses of the new base map functionality.

Edit individual objects in base maps so that they look exactly the way you want, or add or remove items to show only the information you need. The possibilities are endless. Some uses for editing individual base map items include:

  • Changing the color, size or font of individual objects in a base map to more clearly see the data.
  • Removing unwanted objects from an existing base map to help unclutter the map.
  • Adding additional text annotations or other drawing objects to an existing base map.
  • Reshaping polylines and polygons in an existing base map to more accurately reflect the data.
  • Moving objects from one location to another.
  • Copying and pasting multiple items in a base map to duplicate them.

The first step to editing base maps is to load the base map into Surfer. To load a new base map, go to Map | New | Base Map, select the base map file and click Open. To overlay a base map on an existing map, select the existing map and use the Map | Add | Base Layer, select the base map file and click Open. The map is created and the base layer is called Basein the Object Manager.

Deleting Items
1. To edit delete an item from the base layer, click on the item to select it in the plot window, or you can expand theBase layer in the Object Manager and select the item from the list in the Object Manager.

g
Select and item in a base
map by expanding the Base
layer in the Object Manager
and then selecting the
desired item.
2. Once the item is selected, press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete it or right click over the object and go toDelete.
Changing the Properties of a Single Item
1. To change the properties of an object (such as color, size, width, font face, fill, etc), double click on the object in the plot window or in the Object Manager.
2. The properties dialog for that object type will appear. Make your changes and click Apply or OK.
Reshaping Polylines and Polygons
1. To reshape a polyline or polygon, select the polyline or polygon from the base layer and go to Edit | Reshape.
2. Reshape the polyline or polygon.
3. If you want to reshape another polyline or polygon, simply click on that object and reshape it. Press the Esc key on the keyboard to exit reshape mode.

To do more advanced editing of base map items (such as adding items, bulk selecting items, moving and copying items), you must enter the base layer group. To do this, select the base layer in the Object Manager (click on either Base or one of the items in the base layer) and go to Arrange | Enter Group. You are now "inside" the base layer group.

Adding Items
1. To add more items to your base map layer, go to the Draw menu and select the type of object you wish to add.
2. Click on the map and create the object. Create as many objects as you wish. Each object will be created as part of the base map layer.
3. When you are done adding objects, press the Esc key on the keyboard to exit draw mode.
Changing the Properties of Multiple Items at Once
1. To change the properties of multiple items at once, select multiple objects in the Base layer in the Object Managerby either by clicking on the first item, holding the Shift key down, and clicking on the last item (this will select all intervening items), or you can hold the Ctrl key down and select multiple non-contiguous items.
2. Right click over the selected objects and go to Properties.
3. Make the edits and click OK.

Moving Objects in a Base Map
1. To move an item in a base map, select the item and simply drag and drop it to its new location.
Copying and Pasting Items in a Base Map
1. To copy and paste items in a base map layer, select an item and go to Edit | Copy.
2. Go to Edit | Paste. The item will be pasted in the center of the screen.
3. Click and drag the item to the correct location on the map.

When you are done with your changes, use the Arrange | Exit Group command to exit the base layer group.

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A common request for Surfer users is to draw items on a map (such as text annotations) and have the annotations become part of the map, to be moved and scaled when the map is moved and scaled. You can do this in Surfer 9 following these steps:

1. Select your existing map and go to Map | Add | Empty Base Layer. That will add an empty base map layer, calledBase, to your map. You can see this in the Object Manager.
2. Select the new empty base map layer in the Object Manager and go to Arrange | Enter Group. You are now "inside" the base layer group.
3. Go to the Draw menu and select the type of object you wish to create.
4. Click on the map and create the object. Create as many objects as you wish. Each object will be created as part of the base map layer.
5. When you are done drawing objects, press the Esc key on the keyboard to exit draw mode.
6. You can double click on any of the base map objects you just created to edit their properties.
7. Go to Arrange | Exit Group to exit the base layer group.
8. Now when you move, limit or rescale the map, the drawn objects will be moved, shifted and rescaled accordingly.

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Surfer 9 calculates the length and area for polylines and polygons in a base map. If you have polygons or polylines in a base map, simply double click on one of the objects. In the properties dialog go to the Info page to see the perimeter length and area values for polygons or the length value for polylines.

g
Double click on a polygon in a base map, go to the Info page, 
and the perimeter length and area values are displayed.

Alternatively, you can draw polylines and polygons on an existing map and get the length and planar area for those objects! To draw the objects on a map and calculate the length and area, follow these steps:

1. Select your existing map and go to Map | Add | Empty Base Layer. That will add an empty base map layer, calledBase, to your map. You can see this in the Object Manager.
2. Select the new empty base map layer in the Object Manager and go to Arrange | Enter Group. You are now "inside" the base layer group.
3. Go to the Draw menu and select either polyline or polygon.
4.
Draw your polyline or polygon over the map. Create as many objects as you wish. Each object will be created as part of the base map layer.

g
Enter the base map group and draw as many objects as you wish.
Each object will be part of the base map.
5. When you are done drawing the polylines or polygons, press the Esc key on the keyboard to exit draw mode.
6. Go to Arrange | Exit Group to exit the base layer group.
7. Double click on any object in the base map and in the properties dialog, go to the Info page to see length and area calculations.

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Draw objects on top of a map and export them to a vector file in map units! This makes it easy to export your custom drawn objects to a file for use in other programs or in other ways in Surfer. For example, you could:

  • draw a polygon on top of a contour map and export that polygon to a BLN file to use to blank the grid file.
  • draw a polyline on top of your map and export it to a BLN file for use as a fault file or to slice a grid file.
  • draw text, polyline, symbol, and polygon objects over your map and export to a vector file for use in AutoCAD or ArcGIS.

This example will walk through the steps of drawing a polygon on a contour map and exporting it to a BLN file.

1. Select your existing map and go to Map | Add | Empty Base Layer. That will add an empty base map layer, calledBase, to your map. You can see this in the Object Manager.
2. Select the new empty base map layer in the Object Manager and go to Arrange | Enter Group. You are now "inside" the base layer group.
3. You may want to zoom in a few times so you can see the map clearly.
4. Go to Draw | Polygon and draw your polygon over the map. You can use the scroll bars on the sides of the window when drawing the polygon.
5. Double click when you are finished to end the polygon. Now the base map layer has one polygon object in it.
6. Press the Esc key on the keyboard to exit draw mode.
7. Go to Arrange | Exit Group to exit the base layer group.
8.

Turn off the four axes in the Object Manager (uncheck them) and any other map layers (ie. the contour map).

g
Turn off all items in the
map except the Base
layer in the Object
Manager to export only
that polygon.
9. Go to File | Export.
10. In the Export dialog, choose a location to save the file, give the file a name, and choose to save it as BLN Golden Software Blanking (*.bln).
11. Click Save and the file is created.
 

Trusted by over 10,000 Companies and Schools

May 17, 2012

by drew


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