QGIS — setup for UK data

By Simon ‘geosmiles’ Miles

Fingers crossed this is the start of a series of blogs about using QGIS with UK datasets.

By default, or out of the box, QGIS is configured to handle data projected (displayed) on a global scale. This is great if you want to use international/global datasets, but using data that has been created to be handled within the geographic extent of the British National Grid on a global backdrop can lead to issues.

Luckily, QGIS offers a quick resolution.

Open QGIS, the go to SETTINGS >> OPTIONS

On the left is a menu bar, look out for the CRS Handling section.

Step 1. Under ‘When a new project is created’ Click on the radio button for Use a default CRS. Chances are that British National Grid won’t be in the dropdown menu, so click on the small globe icon at the end of the dropdown.

Step 1.2 In the new window that appears, in the filter section (roughly half way down the window), type 27700, then click on OSGB36 / British National Grid, in the Predefined Reference System area. Fingers crossed you should now see a map of the UK covered in a red square.

Step 2. Under ‘CRS for Layers’ and Default CRS for Layers, if British National Grid appears in the drop down choose it, otherwise go back through the same process as in Step 1.2 but via the small globe that appears at the end of the dropdown.

Step 3. Still under ‘CRS for Layers’ click on the radio button for ‘Use project CRS’.

Step 4. Click OK at the bottom on the window and close QGIS. When it reopens, check out the bottom right hand corner of QGIS and you should see EPSG:27700. If you do, you are ready to rock and roll with data being projected to British National Grid. If not, retry the above processes and If all fails then drop me an email!

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