ArcMap layer files in QGIS
A .lyr file stores one layer (or a group of layers) the way ArcMap draws it: the data source,
the renderer with its classes, the symbols, the labels and the scale range. Organisations publish
their cartography as layer files, and data suppliers ship them next to their data. QGIS cannot
open them, but it can use a QML style, and that is what this converter makes.
For each layer in the file you get:
- a QML style with the renderer, every class and symbol, the labels, the scale range and the transparency, to load in QGIS with Layer Properties, Symbology, Style, Load Style;
- an SLD style for web map servers;
- a QGIS project with the layers already styled and pointing at the data source stored in the layer file;
- a legend picture and an overview of the classes.
A group layer file becomes a group in the project and one style per layer.
Whole symbol libraries work too: upload an ArcMap .style file and you get a QGIS style library
(XML) with its fill, line, marker and text symbols, colours and colour ramps, tagged with their
categories, to import with the QGIS Style Manager.
What carries over
Unique values on one or several fields, graduated colours and graduated symbols with their class breaks, proportional symbols, dot density, charts and scale-dependent renderers. Symbols keep all their layers: fills with outlines, hatch fills, marker fills, gradients, picture fills, dashed and offset lines, lines with markers or decorations, and markers. Markers drawn with the Esri marker fonts become QGIS markers of the same shape where the glyph is a simple figure, so they show without the font.
Pitfalls
- The style refers to field names. If your copy of the data uses other names (a shapefile cuts names at 10 characters, for example), unique values and labels will not match until the fields agree.
- Raster layer files keep their colour ramp and stretch; statistics that ArcMap computed are used for the stretch range when the file stores them.
- Picture symbols are embedded in the style, so it can be shared as one file.
More about what this tool reads and writes: ArcMap MXD to QGIS Converter.