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I'm brand new to QGIS and the world of geo mapping tools.

I try to load a .shp file but the nothing seems to happen. The shapefile is good as it can be opened by two other users. I have tried dragging it onto a new project and adding it as a Vector layer, but nothing seems to happen. It looks like it has loaded when I look at the layers section of the screen - though it has a green dot next to it.

I have seen a thread with someone with a similar problem in 2020 but the thread is very hard to follow if you are a newcomer to mapping tools and I don't think it was concluded.

Any ideas anyone?

enter image description here

Key to solution was looking at the layer feature count. Turns out that when I saved the files from outlook to my hard drive, somehow they got corrupted. I deleted and saved them again. Dragged them onto QGIS and all is well.

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    I suggest you move your shape layer above the base map layer in the layer window.
    – Erik
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 9:43
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    – Ian Turton
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 9:45
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    Do you only have the .shp file, or do you have all the files required by the shapefile format ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile
    – nmtoken
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 11:08
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    that this shapefile contains no data.
    – Jochen Schwarze
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 12:30
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    Please cut/paste your solution from the area reserved for questions to the area reserved for answers.
    – PolyGeo ♦
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 19:37

2 Answers 2

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As indicated by Erik in the comments, the order of the layers in your "Layers" pannel matters. The layers at the top of the list are also "on top" on the map. Currently, your OpenStreetMap basemap is showing on top. As it is opaque, you cannot see the shapefile underneath. To change the order of the layers, you can simply click and drag them.

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In this context I would like to point out the "layer order panel". In some cases It might make sense to have some sort of thematically order in the "layer panel", like some sort of legend, which might lead to an unwanted rendering order in the map canvas.

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In such cases you can override the display order defined in the layer tree.

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Check "control rendering order" and see what happens in your example!

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  • Ive changed the order but still nothing. Its a new installation so I have not changed any settings but frustrating that others just drag and drop the shp file onto a project and all is well.
    – Sean
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 10:40
  • Checking the Control rendering order box did nothing.
    – Sean
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 14:03
  • I recommend to check it out with your repaired data, its quit a helpful tool to keep track in large projects!
    – Jochen Schwarze
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 6:51

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