Create a grid with minimal interpolation in Surfer

Regularly spaced XYZ data can be converted to a grid file with little to no interpolation in Surfer using the Nearest Neighbor gridding method.  This may be useful if you have a dense regularly space dataset that you want to view raw before editing or smoothing the data for display.

 

How to grid your regularly spaced data:

Before you get started, make sure you know the spacing of the data you're working with.  This is the distance between each XY point when viewed as a post map or the mode if calculated via statistics.

  1. Click Home | Grid Data | Grid Data.
  2. In the Grid Data dialog, click Browse under Dataset 1
  3. In the Open Data dialog, select your data file and click Open.
  4. Verify the X, Y, and Z columns are assigned correctly.
  5. Click Nearest Neighbor under Gridding Method.
  6. Click Skip to End.
  7. On the Grid Data - Nearest Neighbor - Output page, enter the Spacing of the input data.
  8. Click the folder icon in the Output Grid field to choose a name and location for the grid file.
  9. Click Finish.
Since the grid nodes will lie exactly on the data points, no interpolation will take place.

 

Alternatively, Surfer can read uniformly spaced data in matrix format directly as a grid file.  

Regularly_spaced_data_and_resulting_grid.png
Post and Contour maps illustrating interpolation of regularly spaced data in Surfer

 

Additional Surfer Gridding Resources

 

Updated May, 2023

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