problem with adding a tiff-file to a map

[IreneFellner]

hello,

maybe this is a very simple question, but I'm quite new to ArcGIS:
I want to add a shapefile and a tiff-file to a map, both files don't have a coordinate system / projection defined. I want to have the shapefile aligned exactly on top of the tiff-file. When I add both layers the tiff-file is always placed below the shape file.

I assigned them both the same coordinate system (WGS84) but nothing changes. How can I align the tiff-file exactly over the shape file (they have the same size)? Moving the shape file might be a solution but how can I get the accurate value?

I appreciate any help 🙂

Regards
Irene

(using ArcGIS Desktop 10)

[JakeSkinner]

Hi Irene,

You can georeference your raster dataset to overlay your shapefile:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Georeferencing_a_raster_dataset/009t00...

[IreneFellner]

Hi Jake,

thanks for your answer. Is georeferencing (by adding control points) the only way to do this? Can't it simply be put into the same position as the shapefile somehow?

Regards
Irene

[JakeSkinner]

Hi Irene,

I would first make sure that you have the correct coordinate system for the shapefile.  You previously stated that the coordinate system was undefined for both the shapefile and TIFF.  How did you determine that WGS84 was the correct coodinate system?  If the shapefile was created in another coordinate system, i.e. STATE_PLANE_83, but was defined to another, it will not display in the correct area.  Here is a helpful link that will determine the coordinate system of the shapefile.  Once you have the correct coordinate system of the shapefile, you can try defining the TIFF to the same projection and see if that overlays the two correctly.

Also, does the TIFF file have a .tfw associated with it?  You can check in Windows Explorer for this file.  It will be in the same directory as the TIFF and have the same name, but just ends with a .tfw extension.

[IreneFellner]

Hi Jake,

the shapefile doesn't have a defined coordinate system as it was created by me - I vectorized the tif-image and exported it as a shape-file. There's no world-file for the tif. All I want to do now is having them both displayed in ArcMap. As both don't have a defined projection I just thought that simply defining one for both (no matter which) might do the job, that's why I chose WGS84.

The values in the extent box of the shapefile correlate with the size of the image. I don't understand why the tiff-file is placed below the shape file und does not overlay it.

[IreneFellner]

I just found a solution for my problem: I created a world-file, the values for N and E correspond to the width and height of the tif-image. With this world-file the raster images is exactly laid over the shape file. Nevertheless I doubt that this is the simpliest solution for this use case and would be really interested if this could have been achieved easier?

[kaivendurant]

Waht do you mean by adding  tiff to map, does it means adding watermark to images?If so ,image watermark processing can help you out.holp it works.

[dannyrough]

Waht do you mean by adding  tiff to map, does it means adding watermark to images?If so ,image watermark processing can help you out.holp it works.

i think they are two totally different things which have obvious distinction.