You can view surfaces in 3D in Surfer either as a 3D surface map in the 2D plot window, or in the 3D view window.

3D surface map: This is a simple map to create, and works great if you want to overlay map layers and just want a 3D appearance for your map.  Note that all input data must use the same coordinate system when working with 3D surface maps.  The 3D View method should be used when overlaying multiple data sets with different coordinate systems.

1. Click Home | New Map | 3D Surface.
2. In the Open Grid dialog, select your grid file and click Open. Your 3D surface map is displayed.
3. You can select the map and adjust the properties in the Properties window, or click Home | Add to Map | Layer to add other layers to drape over the 3D surface, such as contours or georeferenced imagery.

3D View: This is an advanced 3D view that allows other 3D functions, such as creating fly-throughs, walking along the surface, viewing the model from all orientations, and exporting to 3D file formats.

1. Click Home | New Map | Contour (or any map type that has 3D data).
2. In the Open Grid dialog, select your input file and click Open. The map is displayed.
3. You can select the map and adjust the properties in the Properties window, or click Home | Add to Map | Layer to add other layers, such as posted points or georeferenced imagery.
4. Click Map Tools | View | 3D View. Your map is now displayed in 3D. Each of the map layers from the 2D plot view is displayed in the 3D view as textures over the grid file. You can turn the textures on and off in the properties.

 Updated November, 2021