impossible to boot CD in EFI firmware?

vmware fusion version 7.1.0.

1. [1] remove all virtual disk drives from virtual machine to avoid unnecessary confusion.
2. [2] attach arch iso to cd-drive.  boot ==> success.
3. [3] add firmware="efi" to .vmx file.
4. [4] reboot ==> failure (happens with virtual CD either IDE or SATA)

(booting from the CD arch install [once] is needed in order to install the EFI boot to the [virtual] hard disk.  arch will not modprobe efivars when booting bios rather than efi-gpt.)

help appreciated.