Support for other map formats
 

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Surge supports the following commonly used map formats:

• Surfer (Golden Software) grid format
   - input: menu item File / Read grid from ASCII file
   - output: menu item Output / Grid as ASCII file.
• 7.5-minute DEM (USGS Digital Elevation Model) grid format
   - input: command line utility DEMGRD.EXE for conversion of a DEM file to a SurGe ASCII grid file and ASCII data file (see the next section Conversion command line utilities).
• GRASS grid format
   - input: command line utility GRSGRD.EXE for conversion of a GRASS ASCII grid file to a SurGe ASCII grid file and ASCII data file (see the next section Conversion command line utilities).
   - output: menu item Output / Grid as GRASS file. Can be used for example as a grid input in the LandSerf, a free software for visualisation and analysis of surfaces (see http://www.landserf.org/).
• ArcGIS ESRI grid format
   - input: command line utility ARCGRD.EXE for conversion of a ArcGIS ASCII grid file to a SurGe ASCII grid file and ASCII data file (see the next section Conversion command line utilities).
   - output: menu item Output / Grid as ArcGIS file. Can be used for example as a grid input in the LandSerf, a free software for visualisation and analysis of surfaces (see http://www.landserf.org/).
• Generic ASCII grid file
   - output: menu item Output / Grid as DAT file. Can be used for example as a grid input in the DLGV32 (Global Mapper). See http://www.globalmapper.com/.
• ESRI Shapefile format
   - input: command line utility SHPDAT.EXE for conversion ESRI Shapefile format to SurGe data objects (see the next section Conversion command line utilities).
   

Conversion command line utilities

The purpose of this package is to provide command line utilities for conversion between commonly used map formats and map objects used in the SurGe software. Up to now there are four utilities:

DEMGRD.EXE	Conversion from 7.5-minute DEM file to ASCII GRD file and ASCII basic input data file.
GRSGRD.EXE	Conversion from GRASS grid file to ASCII GRD file and ASCII basic input data file.
ARCGRD.EXE	Conversion from ArcGIS grid file to ASCII GRD file and ASCII basic input data file.
SHPDAT.EXE	Conversion from ESRI Shapefile format to SurGe data objects.

It is supposed, the package will extend to other map file formats according to users demands (of course, if there is a complete description of the map file format).

Download

SurGe conversion utilities can be downloaded from
http://mujweb.cz/www/SurGe/SGutil.zip
or
http://www.geocities.com/miroslavdressler/SGutil.zip

DEMGRD

Command line syntax:  DEMGRD name_of_DEM_file suffix

Command line example:
C:\DEMFILES>DEMGRD MSH.DEM a
Enter resolution (minimal is 1): 2

MSH.DEM is the name of DEM file
a       is the suffix

This command reads the DEM file MSH.DEM and creates files MSH.GRa (grid in ASCII format) and MSH.DTa (basic input data).
7.5-minute DEM file contains a grid file, where size of grid block is 30x30 metres. The number of grid nodes can be greater than 300000 (the maximal number of input points for SurGe) - that is why DEMGRD asks for "resolution". In our example the resolution is 2, which means, each second node in x and y direction is written in the MSH.DTa file. If, for example, the resolution is 3, then every third node is written and so on.
The file MSH.DTa can be used as a basic input file for SurGe. The grid file MSH.GRa can be imported into SurGe using the menu item "File / Read grid from ASCII file".

GRSGRD

Command line syntax:  GRSGRD name_of_GRASS_file suffix

Command line example:
C:\DEMFILES>GRSGRD SFACE.TXT a
Enter resolution (minimal is 1): 2

SFACE.TXT is the name of GRASS ASCII grid file
a         is the suffix

This command reads the GRASS grid file SFACE.TXT and creates files SFACE.GRa (grid in ASCII format) and SFACE.DTa (basic input data).
The number of grid nodes can be greater than 300000 (the maximal number of input points for SurGe) - that is why GRSGRD asks for "resolution". In our example the resolution is 2, which means, each second node in x and y direction is written in the SFACE.DTa file. If, for example, the resolution is 3, then every third node is written and so on.
The file SFACE.DTa can be used as a basic input file for SurGe. The grid file SFACE.GRa can be imported into SurGe using the menu item "File / Read grid from ASCII file".

ARCGRD

Command line syntax:  ARCGRD name_of_ArcGIS_file suffix

Command line example:
C:\DEMFILES>ARCGRD SFACE.GRD a
Enter resolution (minimal is 1): 2

SFACE.GRD is the name of ArcGIS ASCII grid file
a         is the suffix

This command reads the ArcGIS grid file SFACE.GRD and creates files SFACE.GRa (grid in ASCII format) and SFACE.DTa (basic input data).
The number of grid nodes can be greater than 300000 (the maximal number of input points for SurGe) - that is why ARCGRD asks for "resolution". In our example the resolution is 2, which means, each second node in x and y direction is written in the SFACE.DTa file. If, for example, the resolution is 3, then every third node is written and so on.
The file SFACE.DTa can be used as a basic input file for SurGe. The grid file SFACE.GRa can be imported into SurGe using the menu item "File / Read grid from ASCII file".

SHPDAT

Command line syntax:   SHPDAT name_of_Shapefile name_of_SurGe_file [a]

Command line example:
C:\SHAPEFILES>SHPDAT SHXYZ.SHP SHXYZ.DTa

SHXYZ.SHP is the name of Shapefile
SHXYZ.DTa is the name of SurGe basic input file.

This command reads X,Y and Z coordinates contained in the binary file SHXYZ.SHP and writes them in the ASCII file SHXYZ.DTa, which can be used as a basic input file for SurGe.
SHPDAT can convert not only points, but also boundaries, faults or polylines - it depends of type of shape in the Shapefile (see ESRI Shapefile Technical Description). The following types can be converted:

Type of Shapefile	Content	SurGe object
PointZ (type 11)	X, Y and Z coordinates of points	points XYZ (DTs) or added points (DBs)
Polyline (type 3) or Polygon (type 5)	X and Y coordinates of polyline(s)	boundary (HR) or faults (ZL)
PolylineZ (type 13) or   PolygonZ (type 15)	X, Y and Z coordinates of polyline(s)	spatial polylines (LNs)

If, for example, boundary is stored in two or more Shapefiles, parameter a can be used to create single SurGe boundary file:
C:\SHAPEFILES>SHPDAT SHBOUND1.SHP SHBOUND.HR
C:\SHAPEFILES>SHPDAT SHBOUND2.SHP SHBOUND.HR a
SHPDAT distinguishes between boundary and faults according to used extension in the output file name (HR or ZL) and creates appropriate data format.