QGIS Native Project — XML (.qgs)
Open BetaNative QGIS project in .qgs format — an XML project file alongside the GeoPackage data and QML styles. The XML is human-readable, editable, and version-control friendly. Ideal for teams that value transparency.
Key Features
About QGIS Project (.qgs) Format
A .qgs file is a native QGIS project in the form of plain XML: the layers, their order, the styles, the map extent and the coordinate system are written as text that opens in any editor and is readable by a human.
This option is chosen when the project lives in a repository or is assembled by a script. A text file fits into git properly, shows a clear diff when something changes, can be edited by a script or through PyQGIS and can be checked by eye during code review. The compressed .qgz is inconvenient for that: inside is a binary container, and the version control system sees it as one solid change.
What is in the archive: map.qgs, map.gpkg with the layer data, a styles/ folder with QML styles and a README.txt. The references to the data inside the project are relative, so unpack everything into one folder and do not rename the files. The project opens in QGIS 3.0 and newer; the long-term releases 3.28 and 3.34 are recommended.
What Program Opens QGIS Project (.qgs) Files
The following programs and applications can open, edit, and work with QGIS Native Project — XML (.qgs) (.zip) files exported from OSM2CDR:
Format specifications
- Open standard
- 2D only
- Lossless (no quality loss)
- Stores feature attributes
- Output: 3 files in archive
- Human-readable XML project file (.qgs) alongside GeoPackage data and QML styles. Version-control friendly; ideal for teams auditing map configuration in plain text.
Who Uses QGIS Project (.qgs) Maps
How to Export QGIS Project (.qgs)
How to Open After Export
- QGIS 3.x — unpack the archive into one folder and open map.qgs; the data and the styles are picked up by relative paths.
- Git — keep map.qgs in the repository: the diff shows which layer, style or extent changed, so project edits can be reviewed like ordinary code.
- VS Code or Notepad++ — open map.qgs as XML: find the layer you need, change its source, color or name by hand. After editing, be sure to open the project in QGIS and confirm that it still reads.
- PyQGIS — read the project from a script with the read() method of QgsProject: from there you can change styles in bulk, generate a series of maps and export layouts.
- If you need one compact file to send around — take the .qgz option: the same project, only packed.
Popular maps in QGIS Project (.qgs)
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