Qgis - Projection Problem with EPSG:2272

Question

I work in both Qgis and ArcGIS. Most of my data has been created using ArcGIS and all of my data should be in the EPSG:2272. When I add my data to Qgis, it does not recognize my projection and gives it a user:100000 projection. Below is a comparison from the first part of projection files from ArcGIS and Qgis. As you can see the beginning section of each file is slightly different. Is this causing Qgis to not recognize my projection correctly? How can I fix it so my projections are recognized in both ArcGIS and Qgis?

from ArcGIS PROJCS["NAD_1983_StatePlane_Pennsylvania_South_FIPS_3702_Feet",GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],

from GIS PROJCS["NAD83_Pennsylvania_South_ftUS",GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137,298.257222101]],

Answer 1

This is an old quarrel between ESRI and GDAL about projection names.

If you create a project with layers in EPSG:2272, an additional .qpj file will be created that contains the EPSG code number. Once you have done this, QGIS will always look into that file and not into the .prj from ESRI (without EPSG number).

In QGIS, you can safely use Rightclick -> Set CRS for layer to assign EPSG:2272 to it. Once you save the layer, QGIS can rely on the .qpj file, even if you get a newer version of the file from the ARCGIS world.

Answer 2

• From ArcGIS is the crs ESRI WKT version (SpatialReference.org, EPSG.io)
• From QGIS is the official crs OGC WKT version (EPSG.io)

These ESRI WKT definitions are not all supported by other GIS or libraries (depending of your version of GDAL)