Update: The below refers to ArcGIS 9.3 on WinXP. The path to the file in ArcGIS 10 on Win7 is C:\arcgis\arcexe10x\raster\defaults.
This file:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\ESRI\Raster\defaults\tiff.pdf
despite its file-name extension, is actually a "preferences definition file."
If you open it with a text editor (instead of an Adobe application), you can edit it (after making a backup copy of course).
Change the line:
tfw_access( "World File Access" ): "Read"
to:
tfw_access( "World File Access" ): "Write"
As is noted in the file below that line, the "Write" setting means "[A] World [.TFW] file [will be] read as [a] fallback on input[,] and [will be] written on creation/modification [of a .TIF file]"
So, if you generate a new .TIF it will still be a GeoTIF (i.e., it needs no .TFW because the coordinate-system information is self-contained in the .TIF file), but there will also be a .TFW file too, in case you are giving the file to someone whose software doesn't read the coordinate information inside the .TIF file. If you trash the .TFW, the .TIF will still know where it lives.
Posted by Charles on February 20, 2009 12:02 PM