Surfer vs. VAIL-PLANT

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.

Incentivized

• The interface is simple and easy/quick to learn, so that not much experience is needed to start generating maps.
• The map layouts are easy to manipulate, change colors, scale, labels, contour interval, etc...
• Simple but functional mathematical and logical functions allow for the calculation and manipulation of grids.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• 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!

Incentivized