My colleague's computer creates GeoTiffs when georeferencing tiffs. Mine doesn't.

[StavrosC]

This is an updated question to an unanswered question I asked last week.  Please help! 

I am not able to create geotiffs on my computer, but geotiffs are created if I follow the exact same steps on my colleague's computer.  He and I are georeferencing hundreds of images with ArcGIS 10.  When he hits "update georeferencing", a geotiff is automatically generated, meaning that the supporting files can be deleted and the .tif is still correctly georeferenced when loaded.   My computer does not create geotiffs when I update georeferencing.  It just creates the associated world etc. files. I currently have to work on my colleagues computer because this doesn't work in my computer.  He does not have a service pack and my computer has SP4.

Additionally, the copy raster tool successfully creates geotiffs from georeferenced jpgs on my colleague's computer.  It does not create geotiffs in my computer.

Can anyone help me learn to change my settings to turn georeferenced .tifs into geotiffs on my computer?

[JohnSobetzer]

I didn't think you could create a tiff file with the georeferencing information in its header using the Update Georeferencing tool; one had to use the rectify tool.  But if that was true how to explain the fact your colleague's computer works differently from yours?

Three possiblities come to my mind.  (Actually four - I'm wrong.) The first is that you are deleting the tfw or tfwx files but not the aux.xml file or .aux file.  But you would know that using Windows Explorer.

The second is that your colleague is creating auxiliary files in a proxy folder instead of with the tif and his computer uses them to display the rasters.  This can happen if his computer can't write to the folder containing the raster of if the rasters are otherwise set to read only.  Copying rasters off a CD can do this.  Can you use Windows Explorer to copy just the tif your colleague has produced to another location, rename it and have it show up properly in ArcMap?

Third, which may explain why your computers work differently but wouldn't explain how your colleague produces geotiffs without auxiliary files, is in the ArcMap options settings - Raster - Raster Dataset Use world flie to define the coordinates of the raster.

[StavrosC]

Hi John, thank you for the response!  Unfortunately I've tried everything you mentioned.  I never used rectify, only "update georeferencing".  As a side note, when my colleague hits "update georeferencing", all of his previous control points are lost.  When I do the same, I still have access to all control points.

Option 1: I have verified that I am deleting all associated files using explorer and that my colleague's .tif file is still georeferenced and projected when loaded.
Option 2: I tried opening both .tif files in a different location on the same computer and even on my home computer.  The .tif I created on my colleague's computer is consistently correctly georeferenced.  All georeferencing is consistently missing when I load the .tif I created on my computer.
Option 3: The "use world file to define the coordinates of the raster" is unchecked on both computers.

I've posted both versions of the "updated georeferencing" .tif files (without supporting files) on dropbox if you would like to see.  They're exact same images, just georeferenced using ArcGIS 10 on different computers. 

Thanks so much for any advice.

Stavros

[JohnSobetzer]

I looked at the images, and clearly one shows up where it should, and the other comes in like any raster without spatial information, even after giving it the same coordinate system.

I don't know what is happening.  The cell size changed dramatically, perhaps that is a clue.   Melita Kennedy from ESRI can figure this out, though.  Maybe you should sneak in and swap the computers some night.

See http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//009t000000mn000000, in particular the following:

You can permanently transform your raster dataset after georeferencing it by using the Rectify command on the Georeferencing toolbar or by using the Warp tool. You can also store the transformation information in the auxiliary files using the Update Georeferencing command on the Georeferencing toolbar.

Rectifying or warping will create a new raster dataset that is georeferenced using the map coordinates and the spatial reference. You can save this as a BIL, BIP, BMP, BSQ, DAT, GIF, GRID, IMG, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG, or TIFF. ArcGIS doesn't require you to permanently transform your raster dataset to display it with other spatial data; however, you should do so if you plan to perform analysis with it or want to use it with another software package that doesn't recognize the external georeferencing information created in the world file.

Updating the georeferencing will store the transformation information in external files�??it will not create a new raster dataset, which happens when you permanently transform your raster dataset. For a raster dataset that is file based, such as a TIFF, the transformation will generally be stored in an external XML file�??with an .AUX.XML extension. If the raster dataset is a raw image, such as BMP, and the transformation is affine, it will be written to a world file. For a raster dataset in a geodatabase, Update Georeferencing will store the geodata transformation to an internal auxiliary file of the raster dataset. Updating a raster layer, an image service, or a mosaic layer will only update the layer within your map document; it will not save the georeferencing information back to the source.

The table below shows how each type of target will be saved.
Georeferencing various rasters

Data type


Result

Raster dataset


Update Georeferencing will update the raster dataset.

Raster layer


Update Georeferencing will update the raster layer, and the source rasters will be unaffected.

Image service layer


An image service will not be updated on the server. After you Update Georeferencing you can either save the map document (.mxd) or you can create a layer (.lyr) file to save any georeferencing work.

Raster product


A raster product will not update the underlying raster dataset files. After you Update Georeferencing you can either save the map document (.mxd) or you can create a layer (.lyr) file to save any georeferencing work.

Raster with a function


A raster function will not update the underlying raster files. After you Update Georeferencing you can either save the map document (.mxd) or you can create a layer (.lyr) file to save any georeferencing work.

[StavrosC]

Thanks so much for the advice!  We've discovered a simple solution...  Contrary to the resources section you forwarded, "Update Georeferencing" DOES turn the .tif into a geotiff, if you are running ArcGIS 10.0 SP1 or lower.  I just downgraded my software, and everything gets fixed. 

I'm really surprised there's not a tool to batch convert .tifs to geotiffs.