I like that the program is both basic and easy to use, and capable at the same time. There are plenty of resources available online to help with any problem. The contouring is much more capable than freeware such as QGIS. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The constant updates are hard to keep up with. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The user interface. Very simple and easy to use Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Not a lot of help the user interface is hard to understand at some points Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

In essence, Surfer permits automated map drafting of all sorts. I especially appreciate its georeferencing, contouring, and map overlay features. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing about the program is problematic in my experience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have been using Surfer since it was a DOS application (wow, I'm really dating myself!). It has always been straight-forward with a clean, intuitive GUI. My students (college undergraduate geology majors) have always become reasonable proficient with it in a single lab session. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I generally prefer Surfer's contouring to that ArcGIS so I like to contour equipotential lines, export as a shapefile to ArcGIS. On my version of Surfer (9), the table contour values are not transferred. Perhaps this has been corrected on the latest version but manual entering of contour values is tedious. Again, I don't have the latest version but I would like to see more ease of use with the vector drawing feature. It would be nice if a vector diagram could be made directly from a grid of potential values (e.g., hydraulic head). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Surfer since 1989, mostly for regional works, gridding and mapping with faults, putting in the same window the topography and above it the geology, moreover culture information, rivers, etc. all in 3D. Frequently I crop the grids and show images or contours over them. Now I use the grid editor very frequently and I am very happy with it. I am very pleasant with the capabilities of the Surfer for my job and I can present the products in a very professionally manner. Recently Surfer improved a lot with the possibility of using all of the cores of your computer, it is great at all. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Actually I have nothing to dislike about Surfer Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Excellent for complex mapping analysis, and superb in automation on a variety of platforms. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Surfer does not respect the measuring system of the user by default. Minimally it should respect the measuring system that is set in Windows. Only 3 countries in the world still do not use the metric system, but Surfer, by default, starts with "inches". Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

1) Range of options to produce grids

2) Mapping and digitizing Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Would like more flexibility in editing grids. Such as a node selection and export tools. Would be great to digitize or import a polygon which would then extract grid nodes within or outside of polygon and/or complete a numerical operation on the selected nodes within or outside of a region or multiple regions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I can make presentation or publication quality plots in much less time than Matlab

I have used Surfer (and Grapher) for more than 25 years now. I have also used it in teaching. It is easy for the students to use and has saved me tons of time with my research, letting me focus on the science and not the presentation, which is easy with Surfer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It would be awesome if you could access binary files like netcdf through Surfer and/or Grapher Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Rapid growth of new feature set based on my feedback. Very good beta testing process using forum. Before each major release I get the comprehensive report on my suggested features and current status of its implementation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Quite frequent release of major updates that require paying additional amounts almost every year. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The surfer for me is a first go-to tool when any interpolation of data is required. The grid creation with advanced options (e.g. Breaklines etc) is easy and fast even when dealing with lidar-grade datasets. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The handling of the colors when a custom fill contour could be a bit easier. When exporting contours to dxf, text labels come in default setting that makes it hard to edit once in ACAD environment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.