Transferring QGIS Styles to ArcGIS Desktop – A Comprehensive Guide

arcgis-desktopinteroperabilityqgissldsymbology

We have a QGIS project that has symbols for a lot of different lines. Data comes from a Geodatabase that is accessible to both QGIS and ArcGIS.

We now want to use the symbology of the QGIS project to style the features in the ArcGIS map document.

My first approach was to use SLDs. The QGIS style can be exported to SLD easily, but how can you style your features according to a SLD using ArcGIS Desktop?

Setting up a simple WMS does not suffice, both QGIS and ArcGIS Desktop need editing capabilities on the features.

If one could provide a SLD with a WFS (in a ESRI-readable way) that would also be a possibility. Have found nothing for that, either.

Best Answer

This may not be what you want to hear but I think the best chance you have of having ArcGIS Desktop read SLD files will be to vote for this ArcGIS Idea.

Its proposer says:

It would be a great interoperability improvement to be able to import SLD styles into *.style files and vice versa.

Related Solutions

[GIS] Exporting Symbology from ArcGIS for Desktop to Microstation or QGIS

I've used all the softwares mentioned above and have never been able to synchronize the symbology between the three. It appears your best bet is to go from ArcGIS to SLD (which QGIS will read). It appears the best answer currently is Arc2Earth (http://www.arc2earth.com/products/download/). I've never tried it- but I've found several references to this Converting ArcGIS layer style to Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) file? .

[GIS] Migrating SVG-based styles for QGIS to other computers

This is how an SVG symbol is defined in QML:

  <symbol outputUnit="MapUnit" alpha="0.329412" type="marker" name="0">
    <layer pass="0" class="SvgMarker" locked="0">
      <prop k="angle" v="0"/>
      <prop k="fill" v="#000000"/>
      <prop k="name" v="/leaf2.svg"/>
      <prop k="offset" v="0,0"/>
      <prop k="outline" v="#000000"/>
      <prop k="outline-width" v="1"/>
      <prop k="size" v="2"/>
    </layer>
  </symbol>

It uses a relative paths to look for the symbol in the folders specified in Settings - Options - Rendering - SVG Paths.

To migrate styles, you have to either copy the new SVGs into an existing SVG path or add a new one.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[GIS] Exporting Symbology from ArcGIS for Desktop to Microstation or QGIS

[GIS] Migrating SVG-based styles for QGIS to other computers

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