Golden Software Surfer Binary Grid Reader/Writer

FME Format Type Identifier

SURFERBINARY

Reader/Writer

Both

Typical File Extensions

.grd

Surfer is a contouring and 3D surface mapping program developed by Golden Software. Surfer Binary Grid is the binary version of one of the raster formats used by this product.

FME supports Surfer Binary Grid versions 6 and 7.

Golden Software Surfer Binary Grid Product and System Requirements

Format

Product

Operating System

Reader/Writer

FME Desktop License

FME Server

FME Cloud

Windows

Linux

Mac

Reader

Available in all FME editions

Yes

Yes

64-bit: Yes

Yes

Yes

Writer

Available in all FME editions

Yes

Yes

64-bit: Yes

Yes

Yes

Reader Overview

FME considers a single Surfer Binary Grid file to be a dataset. Each dataset contains a single FME raster feature.

Writer Overview

FME considers a dataset to be a folder name.

The writer distinguishes duplicate output files by appending numbers to the filenames.

FME Raster Features

FME raster features represent raster data and use several concepts that are unlike those used in the handling of vector data. The topics below describe how FME processes raster data.

About FME Rasters Tiling and Mosaicking
Raster Properties Band Combining and Separating
Band Properties Band and Palette Selection
Palette Properties Raster Processing
Compression Raster versus Vector Features
Pyramiding Raster File Naming
Interleaving World Files
Interpretation and Data Type TAB Files
Palette Resolution  

Surfer Binary Grid only supports rasters with a single numeric band.