View ADF files in your browser
The raster ArcInfo wrote, a folder of .adf files, as elevation and land cover still come in archives. Open one right here in its place over OpenStreetMap. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your grid opens in its place on the map, over OpenStreetMap, read block by block through its projection.
- In its place • Through the system it names
- Heights colored and shaded • Other numbers on a ramp
- Inspect • The value under the cursor
- Export • The view as PNG
About ADF
Esri's ArcInfo kept rasters as grids from the early 1990s, and agencies handed out elevation, land cover and soils in them for decades: the USGS's National Elevation Dataset came as ArcGrid downloads. ArcGIS still reads them, and many archives hold nothing else.
A grid is a folder named after it: hdr.adf gives its cell type and blocks, dblbnd.adf its bounds, sta.adf its lowest, highest and mean values and prj.adf its coordinate system, while w001001.adf holds the cells in blocks, whole numbers packed in one of a dozen ways, found through w001001x.adf. The info folder beside it holds the workspace's tables.
Drop the grid's folder, or the ZIP it came in, and Filepeek reads its blocks and lays the grid in its place through its projection: heights colored and shaded, other numbers on a ramp. Inspect gives the value under the cursor, Measure a profile of the heights, and Export saves the view as PNG.
ArcInfo binary grid
.adf
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- Esri, for ArcInfo
- Released
- Early 1990s
Inside the file
- Holds
- Heights or whole numbers
- Files
- hdr, dblbnd, sta and w001001
- Cells
- In packed blocks
- System
- In prj.adf
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens ArcInfo grids on a map in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers download each .adf.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open ADF
- WindowsArcGIS Pro • QGIS • Global Mapper
- MacQGIS
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open an ArcInfo grid?
Drop the grid's whole folder on this page, the one with hdr.adf and w001001.adf in it, or the ZIP it came in. It opens in its place on the map.
Why are there so many .adf files?
Each says one thing about the grid, its header, bounds, statistics, system or cells, and none is the grid alone. Open the folder they're in together.
Why are the colors not ArcGIS's?
ArcGIS colors a grid from settings its folder doesn't keep. Filepeek colors heights from low to high, shaded from the northwest, and other numbers on a ramp with its legend.
Does it open big grids?
Yes. A grid too big for your device is read at every second or fourth cell across, and Show details says so.
Is my .adf an Amiga disk?
ADF also names the Amiga's floppy disk images. Those aren't grids, and show their About card here.