How to open a .LYR file online
From file to map in seconds.
Open your .LYR file
Drag it onto the box or click to choose it from your device. It opens on your computer.
See it on the map
Points, lines and areas from your .LYR file appear on an interactive map. Click any feature to read its details.
Read the stats
Check distance, elevation gain and loss, the bounding box and a height profile linked to the map.
What is a .LYR file?
The common language of GPS devices.
A .lyr file is an ArcGIS Layer File created by Esri's ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap). It stores map layer display settings (symbology, colours, labels) plus a pointer to the actual geographic data, but contains no geographic data itself. Open it in ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Pro. It cannot be opened in a text editor or free GIS tool.
Programs that open .LYR files
| Full name | ArcGIS Layer File |
|---|---|
| Developer | Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) |
| First released | Late 1990s with ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap) |
| Category | Maps & GIS |
| MIME type | application/octet-stream |
| Signature | D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1 (OLE2 Compound Document (same as .doc, .xls etc.)) |
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Is my .LYR file uploaded anywhere?
No. Your .LYR file is read by your browser and never sent to us. Only the background map tiles are loaded from OpenStreetMap, which sees which map area you're looking at, not your data.
How is the elevation gain calculated?
We add up every climb between track points, ignoring tiny wiggles of less than 3 metres that come from GPS noise. That's close to what Strava and Garmin report; barometric devices may differ slightly.
How do I open a Shapefile?
A Shapefile is several files. Drop the whole .zip, or select the .shp, .dbf and .prj files together. With only the .shp you'll see the shapes but no attributes.
Can I convert GPX to KML or GeoJSON?
Use Export GeoJSON to save everything you see. GPX ↔ KML conversion is part of our upcoming converter.
My CSV has coordinates. Will it work?
Yes, if it has columns named like lat/latitude/y and lon/lng/longitude/x. Every row becomes a point with the other columns as properties.
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