georeference sid

[CurtisShmigelsky1]

Hi, I am fairly new to ArcGIS Desktop and GIS, so forgive me if my explanation is not too clear.

I have received a few sid files that span several years, all at the same location.  I would like to georeference those files so I can add my vector information. These files are at different scales and I imported each one by going add-data->Data

What would be the process or can someone point me in the direction to georeference these files.  I have been looking at the documentation, but no luck so far

Thanks

[DanPatterson_Retired]

You would be advised to convert the sid files to a different format which isn't proprietary

Supported raster dataset file formats—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

FME can do the translation LizardTech MrSID Data | FME | Safe Software

and I suspect if you can view them you can export them as well using one of the conventional formats

Raster To Other Format—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

everyone has their favorites and I don't want to start a flame war, but I prefer lossless smaller file size versions like *.png although the many prefer the larger potentially lossy different versions of *.tif (tiff)

[CurtisShmigelsky1]

OK I will convert to png and give that a shot. Thanks as always

[TimothyHales]

Normally your files have a spatial reference already defined within the metadata. When you open the SID properties in Catalog (right click > Properties), is there a Spatial Reference?  If the file already has a spatial reference, then it will not show in the Georeferencing Toolbar even if you convert it to another format such as TIFF. You would have to use the Project Raster tool to assign an undefined spatial reference to the raster.

Do you have any other reference data to see where the SID is displaying when you add it to ArcMap?

[CurtisShmigelsky1]

Hi Timothy, thanks for the reply.  There is no Spatial Reference for the sid files. Here is a screenshot of the metadata

[TimothyHales]

Ok, then you will need to convert it to another format as Dan mentioned. Keep in mind that SID files are highly compressed, and the storage for the new file will be significantly greater. In the example above it's only 135mb uncompressed so that's not bad, but keep an eye on this for other rasters.