Guide to Creating Cross-sections in Surfer 10

60 Elevation (m OD) 40 20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500 7000 Distance Northeast from NGR 195310, 201740

To start off, you must first have a grid file of your surface data and a .BLN file defining the line of section. If you do not have a .BLN file, one can be digitized. To Digitize a .BLN that Defines the Line of the Cross Section 1. Click the File | New | Plot command to open a new plot window. 2. Click the Map | New | Contour Map command. 3. In the Open Grid dialog, select the grid file and click Open. A contour map is created. 4. Click once on the contour map to select it. 5. Click the Map | Digitize command. This allows you to click on the screen and record the XY coordinates. Click once at each end of the section transect. 6. In the Digitized Coordinates window, click File | Save As. 7. In the Save As dialog, specify a location to save the blanking file, enter the File name, and select Boundary Files (*.bln) as the Save as type. Click the Save button to save the blanking file. 8. Close the Digitized Coordinates window by clicking the X in the upper right of the window. 9. Press the ESC key on the keyboard to end digitizing mode. Slicing the Grid file to create a Data file 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Click the Grid | Slice command. In the Open Grid dialog, select the grid file and click Open. In the Open dialog, select the .BLN file you created above and click Open. Save the Output DAT File as Filename. Click the OK button and the .DAT file is created.

Modifying the Data file and converting to a .BLN File 1. Click the File | Open command. 2. In the Open dialog, select the .DAT file and click Open. The data file will open in the Surfer worksheet. 3. For a cross section, the accumulated distance along the section will be the X axis (currently located in column D). The Z value will be the Y axis of the cross section (currently column C). The information currently in column A, B, and E are not needed to create a cross section in this example.

4. Cut and paste Column D to Column A and Column C to Column B. Delete Column E. Displaying the Cross Section Line 1. Click the Column A header button to highlight column A. Click the Data | Statistics command. 2. In the Statistics dialog, check the Number of values option in the Select items to compute section. The other items to compute do not need to be checked. 3. Click the OK button and the Statistics Results dialog appears. The Number of values is listed. Note your number. 4. Click the Close button in the Statistics Results dialog. 5. To create a blanking file header row, an empty row needs to be inserted before the data. Click the row 1 button to highlight the first row. Use the Edit | Insert command to insert a blank row before the first data values. 6. In cell A1, enter the number of values value 7. Click the File | Save As command. 8. In the Save As dialog enter the File Name. Select BLN Golden Software Blanking (*.bln) as the Save as type. Click the Save button. 9. Click on the Plot 1 tab to go to the plot window where the contour map is located. 10. Click the Map | New | Base Map command. 11. In the Import dialog, select the converted .BLN file and click Open. A base map of the cross section is displayed. The base map scale needs to be adjusted to properly view the cross section. 12. To change the scale of the map, click on the Map object that contains the base map in the Object Manager to display the map properties.