4. The Browser panel
The QGIS Browser panel is a great tool for browsing, searching, inspecting, copying and loading QGIS resources. It is available as:
a Data Source Manager tab, enabled pressing the
Open Data Source Manager button (Ctrl+L);as a QGIS panel you can open from the menu (or
) or by pressing Ctrl+2.
Fig. 4.1 The Browser panel
A second browser panel can be opened by activating the Browser (2) panel in . Having two browser panels can be useful when copying layers between resources that are located deep down in different branches of the browser hierarchy.
4.1. Exploring the Interface
4.1.1. The Toolbar
At the top of the Browser panel, you find some buttons that help you:
Add Selected Layers: you can also add data to the map
canvas by selecting Add selected layer(s) from the layer’s context menu;
Refresh the browser tree;
Filter Browser to search for specific data. Enter a search
word or wildcard and the browser will filter the tree to only show paths to
matching DB tables, filenames or folders.
Using the 
Options pull-down menu next to the filter text field,
you can:make the comparison Case Sensitive or not
set the Filter pattern syntax to one of:
Normal: show items containing the search text
Wildcard(s): fine tune the search using the
?and/or*characters to specify the position of the search textRegular expression: use full capabilities of regular expression to find specific data.
Collapse All the whole tree;
Enable/disable properties widget: when toggled on,
a new widget is added at the bottom of the panel showing, if applicable,
metadata for the selected item.
Fig. 4.2 The properties widget
4.1.2. The Entries
The main part of the Browser panel is organised as an expandable hierarchy
with some fixed top-level entries that organise the resources handled by the browser.
Node entries are expanded by clicking on 
to the left of the entry name.
A branch is collapsed by clicking on 
.
The Collapse All button collapses all top-level entries.
Top level entries include:
Favorites where you can place shortcuts to often used locations
Spatial Bookmarks where you can store often used map extents (see Bookmarking extents on the map)
Project Home: for a quick access to the folder in which (most of) the data related to your project are stored. The default value is the directory where your project file resides.
Home directory in the file system and the filesystem root directory.
Connected local or network drives
Then comes a number of container / database types and service protocols, depending on your platform and underlying libraries:
Table 4.1 Database and service entries in Browser panel Label
References
GeoPackage
SpatiaLiteDatabase entries, Creating a new SpatiaLite layer, SpatiaLite Layers
PostgreSQL
SAP HANA
STACTiles and Web Services, STAC (SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs)
MS SQL Server
Oracle
WMS/WMTS
Cloud
Scenes
SensorThings
Vector Tiles
XYZ Tiles
WCS
WFS/OGC API-Features
ArcGIS REST Servers
You can customize the list of displayed items by disabling some of them in the dialog. If you, for instance, would not like to show Python scripts in the browser, you can uncheck the entry, and if you want to get rid of your home folder in the browser, you can uncheck the entry. Read Customization for more details.
4.2. Browser panel top-level entries
Many types of resources can be found in the Browser tree. They can be GIS layers (vector, raster, mesh, point cloud, …), QGIS project files or templates, layer styles, bookmark extents, Processing scripts and models, Python scripts, various file types (images, pdf, xml, …). The resources can be stored as plain files on disk, tables of database, or served through a web service. The Browser panel generally supports double-clicking those resources or drag-and-dropping them across entries within the browser, between the browser and the Layers panel and from the browser to the map canvas. The result of the drag and drop depends on the type of resource and its destination; it can load a layer or a project, copy a resource, execute a script or a model, …
Most of the elements in the Browser panel also have actions assigned through their contextual menu. The actions vary depending on the item you right-clicked over. Resource specific actions are listed for the different resource groups sorted under the top-level entries listed below.
4.2.1. Favorites
Often used file system locations can be tagged as favorites. The ones you have tagged will appear here.
In addition to the operations described under common folders and drives, the context menu allows you to Rename Favorite… and Remove Favorite.
4.2.2. Spatial Bookmarks
This is where you will find your spatial bookmarks, divided into Project Bookmarks and User Bookmarks.
Level |
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Spatial Bookmarks |
New Spatial Bookmark… |
Show the Spatial Bookmark Manager |
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Import Spatial Bookmarks… |
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Export Spatial Bookmarks… |
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Bookmark group (Project Bookmarks and User Bookmarks) |
New Spatial Bookmark… |
Import Spatial Bookmarks… |
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Export Spatial Bookmarks… |
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Individual bookmark |
Zoom to Bookmark |
Edit Spatial Bookmark… |
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Delete Spatial Bookmark |
4.2.3. Project Home
Available once the project file has been saved, the Project home entry is a folder containing data and other contents (scripts, models, text, …) that may be used within the current project. Displayed in the Browser panel, it allows you to quickly access data and other files of the project.
It defaults to the project file folder but can be changed through the option, or by right-clicking on the Project Home item of the Browser panel and selecting Set project home…. Customizing that folder is especially useful in contexts where QGIS projects are not stored in the root folder of an organisational ‘project’, along with datasets.
4.2.4. Drives and file system
The next items of the Browser panel depend on the OS in use and concern the top level entries of its file system. They are mainly:
The Home folder, pointing to the current user home folder
on Unix-based machines, the root / folder
the connected drives, either local or network. Depending on the OS, they are directly listed (e.g.,
C:\,D:\) or through the/Volumesentry.
From the contextual menu of each of these folders or drives, you can:
Refresh the files and folders of the entry
create a subitem that is a Directory…, GeoPackage…, ESRI Shapefile… or ESRI FileGeodatabase… format dataset
Hide from Browser: hides the selected directory or drive from the panel. The list of hidden folders can be found in and the folders can be recovered individually. They also can be recovered from the contextual menu of their parent folder using the entry.
Set color…: customize the folder icon color, aiding in rapid browser navigation of complex folder structures
enable Scanning:
Monitor for changes: allows to manually control
whether a particular directory should be monitored and automatically updated.
This setting applies to the selected directory and all subdirectories.
This means that you can manually opt-in to monitoring of network drives
if you know there’s no issue, or manually opt-out of monitoring of large
directories which you don’t want monitored for other reasons.
By default, remote or network drives are not automatically monitored.
Fast scan this directory
Open Directory…: opens the directory in your file manager
Open in Terminal…: opens the directory in a terminal window
inspect the Properties… or the parent Directory Properties…
Note
The abovementioned contextual menu items are also available from any directory in the browser, regardless of its location.
Under the directories, interaction with files may differ depending on whether it is a QGIS project file, it is of a data format supported or not by QGIS, it is a plain file or a data container, …
4.2.4.1. Project files
Project files can be dragged and dropped from the browser to the map canvas to open the project or to a database (e.g., GeoPackage, PostgreSQL, …) for storage. Further operations can be done through their contextual menu:
Open project
Extract symbols…: opens the Style manager dialog filled with all the symbols (marker, text, label, material, 3D symbol, …). It is then possible to select items and share them with other contexts.
Show in files: Opens the folder containing the project file in the Operating System file explorer
File properties…
Project files stored in directories can be expanded in the Browser`panel, showing the full layer tree (including groups) within that project. Layers of a project can be loaded from the browser to the active project through double-click or drag and drop to map canvas or :guilabel:`Layers panel. They can also be dropped onto a database and imported within. Their contextual menu allows to , Add Layer to Project and preview Layer Properties….
4.2.4.2. Layer files
For leaf entries that can act as layers in a QGIS project, the contextual menu will present some of the following entries.
Level and Contextual menu |
Types of layers |
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Open <file type> Externally… |
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Execute SQL… |
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Add Layer to Project |
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Add Selected Layers to Project |
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Layer Properties… |
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Open with Data Source Manager… |
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Show in Files |
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File Properties… |
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Some notes about opening options:
Open <file type> Externally… allows to open files (HTML files, spreadsheets, images, PDFs, text files, …) with their default applications
Use Open with Data Source Manager… to directly open and configure the data source in the Data Source Manager using the URI of your data source. This simplifies the process of adding a layer from the Browser by allowing you to set specific opening options for the data source. It is currently available for vector (including the dedicated GeoPackage entry), raster, and SpatiaLite data sources.
4.2.4.3. Other specific supported file types
File type |
Context menu |
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QGIS Layer Definition (.qlr) |
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Processing Model (.model3) |
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Print Composer Template (.qpt) |
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Python script (.py) |
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4.2.4.4. Properties of Browser items
For files and directories in the Browser panel, dedicated File properties… and Directory properties… tools in their contextual menu open their properties dialog using the Operating System.
For items in the Browser panel that can be used as layers in QGIS,
the Layer properties… contextual menu entry opens a dialog
with detailed information to better understand the dataset.
These details can also be displayed automatically at the bottom
of the Browser panel if the Enable/disable
properties widget button in its top toolbar is activated.
Metadata: similar to what you find in the Information tab of the layer properties dialog after you load the layer in QGIS. Metadata groups Information from provider (if possible, Path will be a hyperlink to the source), Identification, Extent, Access, Fields (for vector layers), Bands (for raster layers), Contacts, Links (for vector layers), References (for raster layers), History.
Preview: helps spatially visualize the data you can pan and zoom.
Attributes: shows the attribute table, for vector sources.
4.2.5. Database entries
Depending on your OS and installed drivers, you might have access to different database types to use in QGIS. Below are listed the different entries of contextual menu at each level of the dataset tree.
Level and Context menu |
Type of database |
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GeoPackage ([1]) |
SpatiaLite |
PostgreSQL |
SAP HANA |
MS SQL Server |
Oracle |
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Top menu (provider) |
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Create a New Connection… to an existing database |
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Create Database… |
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Create Database and Layer… |
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Save Connections… details to a file |
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Load Connections… |
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Connection / Database |
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Refresh a connection |
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Edit Connection… settings |
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Duplicate Connection |
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Remove Connection… |
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Import Vector Layer… |
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New Relationship… |
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Delete <database_name> |
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Compact Database (VACUUM) |
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Create a New Schema… |
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Create a New Table… |
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Execute SQL… query |
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Schema |
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Refresh a schema |
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Create a New Table… |
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Execute SQL… query |
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Table / Layer |
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New Table… |
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Execute SQL… query |
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Compact Database (VACUUM) |
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Add Layer to Project |
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Add Selected Layers to Project |
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Open Layer Properties… dialog |
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Open File Properties… dialog |
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Open with Data Source Manager |
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QGIS project |
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Export Project to File… |
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Rename Project… |
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Delete Project… |
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Duplicate Project… |
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Move Project to Schema… |
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Set Comment… |
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Enable Projects Versioning… |
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Show Project Versions… |
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Open Project |
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Extract Symbols… |
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Fields |
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Add New Field… |
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Field |
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Set Field Domain |
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Rename Field ([2]) |
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Set Alias… |
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Set Comment… |
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Delete Field… |
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Field Domains |
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Field Domain |
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Edit Field Domain… |
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Delete Field Domain… |
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4.2.5.1. Importing vector layers into databases using Browser panel
QGIS provides easy ways to transfer vector layers directly to supported database formats using the Browser panel. You can start the import in two ways:
Drag and drop a single vector layer from the Browser panel or from the Project into a database connection or schema item.
Right-click on a database connection or schema item and choose Import Vector Layer… from the context menu.
This triggers the Import Vector Layer dialog for further customisation. When multiple layers are dragged into a database, they are imported immediately without further options. All imports run in the background, so the QGIS interface remains responsive during the process.
Fig. 4.3 Import Vector Layer dialog
You can then fill the following options:
Source for defining input layer
Source layer: the vector layer to import, chosen from the current project layers or the layer dropped onto the database entry.
To import only selected features of the source layer taken from the active project, use the
Selected features only option.
Output for defining the destination table
Schema: when supported by the database, the schema in which to import the layer. It should already exist in the database, or create it in the database and use the
Refresh schemas button to update the list.Table name: the name of the destination table in the database. By default, it is taken from the source layer name but can be modified. You can also use the
Replace destination table (if exists)
to overwrite an existing table.
Options for handling the data
Primary key: when supported by the database, sets the primary key name for the created table. Defaults to the source layer primary key name, or a default provider-specific name if the source layer does not have a primary key. It is also possible to use a custom name and define the new field in the Attributes group below.
- Geometry column: for spatially enabled layer
and when supported by the database, this represents the naming for the geometry column.
Defaults to the source layer geometry column name, or a default provider-specific name
if the source layer does not have a named geometry column.
Output CRS: the coordinate reference system of the destination table. By default, it is the CRS of the source layer, but it can be changed using the CRS selector.
Comment: when supported by the database, a description of the destination table
Attributes: allows you to modify the dataset (fields and values) as you want. By default, the widget is populated with fields in the source layer with their properties. You can adjust each of them:
Source expression: allows to use QGIS expressions to feed fields with calculated values. By default, no modification is applied to the input values.
Name: name of the field in the destination table.
Type: field data type (integer, text, real, etc.).
Length and Precision: length and precision of the field, where applicable.
Constraints: rules to enforce on the field values (e.g. NOT NULL, UNIQUE, DEFAULT). Support depends on the destination database.
Alias: an alternate display name for the field.
Comment: a description or note attached to the field.
You can use buttons on the right side to:
Add new field to add a new field to the destination table.
Delete selected field to avoid adding a field to the destination table.
Move selected field up or 
Move selected field down to reorder fields.
Reset all fields to clear any customization to the fields.
Convert All Fields To Lowercase or Convert All Fields To Uppercase,
to change the case of all field names.
Optionally, apply a spatial filter with Filter by Extent. This restricts the import to features within a defined bounding box.
Optionally, apply an attribute filter with Feature filter. This allows you to use an expression to select which features are imported.
4.2.6. Tiles and Web Services
Level and Context menu |
Type of services |
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WMS / WMTS |
XYZ Tiles |
WCS |
WFS / OGC API - Features |
ArcGIS REST Servers |
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Top menu |
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Create a New Connection… |
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Save Connections… details to a file |
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Load Connections… |
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Connection |
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Refresh connection |
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Edit Connection… settings |
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Duplicate Connection |
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Remove Connection… |
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View Service Info in Web browser |
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Table / Layer |
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Add Layer to Project |
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Add Vector Layer (FeatureServer) to Project |
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Add Raster Layer (MapServer) to Project |
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Add Raster with All MapServer Layers |
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Add Filtered Layer to Project… |
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Open Layer properties… dialog |
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View Service Info in Web browser |
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Level and Context menu |
Type of services |
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Vector Tiles |
Scene |
Cloud |
SensorThings |
STAC |
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Top menu |
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Create a New Connection… |
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Create a New Generic Connection… |
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Create a New ArcGIS Vector Tile Service Connection… |
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Save Connections… details to a file |
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Load Connections… |
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Connection |
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Edit Connection… settings |
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Duplicate Connection |
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Delete Connection… |
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Refresh |
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Details… |
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Table / Layer |
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Add Layer to Project |
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Open Layer properties… dialog |
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Refresh |
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Download assets… |
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Details… |
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