LMKR in Dubai offers GeoGraphix, a suite of applications supporting research activities for oil and gas like mapping and petrophysical modeling and well planning.
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Surfer
Score 9.0 out of 10
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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.
I can not say where "it is or is not appropriate" in general terms, because you do not have experience in all fields of application of the program. But if you can note that within the areas where it has been applied and where better results have been obtained, it is when the results have been integrated with programs such as the ARGIS, specifically through the map module, obtaining simultaneous general visualizations of different variables. Where lower quality results have been obtained, it is when the intention is to generate contour maps with relatively little information, through the use of interpolation algorithms. I have done tests where I have results with a good amount of information and I try that the program, after removing information selectively, I generate new surfaces, in order to see how sensitive is the generated surface to the amount of information available. The results are similar to those obtained with other software that can also generate the desired surfaces.
Surfer has been excellent for us, a small company, to process the electrical resistivity, refraction microtremor, and MASW data collected in the field. There are an increasing number of programs capable of assisting in this geophysical analysis but Surfer is the most advanced. The ability to create both 2D and 3D figures in the program while managing data is a huge help. It also greatly improved report quality and helped clients better understand what the results were for a study.
It is an integral tool that allows linking information from different disciplines.
The software allows the projects it manages to be stored anywhere in the network where it is working, including storage devices that are connected to the network itself.
The integrity of the data is high, while the search engine and associated quality control maximize the degree of manageability of the data, even when the project is large.
It suffers from what happens to most software of this type: the resolution of isolines that define points or surfaces of the same characteristic (for example, equal depth, or the same degree of hardness), depend a lot on the interpolation algorithm that the software is selected or used directly, so in general the characteristics of these surfaces do not reliably characterize the actual conditions being studied.
The use of this software, in particular, is limited to machines that operate with 64-bit processors.
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.
The named software may have the same or higher capacity than the revised one, as far as the analysis of the data is concerned, but they do not have the capacity of visual representation that the GeoGraphix has. The interesting thing is to use the best of the different software. You can analyze with one and import the data to the GeoGraphix to make the analyzes on the platform of this one.
Surfer is very unique with respect to its capabilities. I am not aware of any other mapping software that is at the same time flexible, has a friendly interface, and creates such nice-looking maps.
It has enlarged the size of the study area due to its great data handling capacity.
It has increased the possibility of recreating and posing different scenarios, as well as the sensitivity of these to changes in the values of any of the parameters involved.
The speed with which you can obtain results for different study scenarios has also increased.
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!
