Projects and Folder Structure#

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In this wiki article, best practices for the creation and management of QGIS projects and geodata is presented.

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Step-by-step: Setting up a new QGIS project from scratch#

Tip

It is good practice to use a standard folder structure for QGIS projects in which the project, all used geodata, styling files and documentation is stored.

  1. Copy the standard folder structure for QGIS projects to the place you want to store your whole project. You can download the standard folder structure here.

  2. Open QGIS and create a new project. Click on Project -> New Project

Create a new QGIS Project#

  1. Safe the new project in the Project folder in the standard folder structure and git push.

  2. Give your project a name and click

Tip

Do not use spaces in the name, instead always use underscores _

Save Project#

  1. Check the Coordinate Reference System (CRS)/EPSG code of the project to the CRS/EPSG you want to use. For more information check the wiki article on Projection.

Check and change CRS/EPSG#

Tip

The layer data used in the project are not saved in the project file. Instead, the project file only contains the file paths where the layer data were located at the time the project was last saved on the PC. If the location of this layer data is subsequently changed, the error message “handle unavailable layers” will appear when the project is opened again. Good data organisation with a fixed and well thought-out folder structure prevents such problems.

Open existing QGIS Projects#

Open QGIS -> Project -> Open -> Select your project

Open QGIS Project

Standard Folder Structure#

The standard folder structure has two principal advantages:

  1. By sharing the whole project folder, we can be certain that the project will run without problems on a different computer.

  2. The folder structure supports the proper organization of geodata and supports the stable function of a QGIS project.

The folder structure template can be downloaded here.

../../_images/Standard_project_folder_structure.drawio.svg

Fig. 233 Standard folder structure. Source:#