What is the APR file format?
An .apr file is a GIS project file created by Esri's ArcView GIS (versions 1.0 through 3.3). It organizes a complete mapping workspace: one or more View documents (map display with layered themes), legend and symbol definitions per theme, Layout blocks for print output, Avenue script source code, and Table or Chart documents.
The format is plain ASCII text, structured in ArcView's own key-value block syntax, and can be opened in any text editor for inspection. Despite its GIS purpose, an .apr stores only references - absolute or relative file paths - to geospatial data. The actual spatial data resides in separate .shp shapefiles, .dbf attribute tables, .shx index files, raster files, and ArcInfo coverage directories. Relocating the .apr without its data breaks all layer links.
ArcView GIS was first released in 1992 and reached its final version, 3.3, in 2002. The format was superseded by .mxd (ArcMap Document, introduced in ArcGIS 8.x in 2000) and later by .aprx (ArcGIS Pro Project, 2015). ArcView 3.x is discontinued and requires Windows XP or a virtual machine to run on modern hardware.
No current GIS application - including QGIS or ArcGIS Pro - imports .apr projects natively. Migration requires manually re-adding each data layer and recreating symbology in the target platform.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWAPR files are plain text and pose no execution risk. The Avenue scripting language in ArcView 3.x is executed only within the ArcView 3.x environment - the script code inside an .apr is inert unless ArcView 3.x is actively running and loads the project. No known malware uses .apr vectors. Main risk is data inaccessibility if the referenced data sources are not present at their original paths.
Format details
in a nutshell- Apache Portable Runtime project file (very rare) - Some build systems use .apr for Apache Portable Runtime-related project metadata - an entirely unrelated context.
- ArcExplorer Project File - Esri ArcExplorer (free viewer) also used .apr for its project files - closely related but distinct from full ArcView 3.x.
Programs that open APR files
Windows4 apps
ArcView GIS 3.3 (legacy)
Paid File > Open Project and select the .apr - the native application. ArcView 3.x is discontinued (EOL ~2008) and does not run reliably on Windows 10/11; requires Windows XP/Vista/7 or a virtual machine (e.g. VMware/VirtualBox with XP).
ArcGIS Pro
Paid Cannot open .apr directly. Use the ArcView Project Import tool (available in older ArcGIS Desktop 9.x/10.x) to migrate the project, or open the referenced Shapefiles and other data sources manually in ArcGIS Pro. Check Esri's ArcView to ArcGIS migration documentation. 
QGIS
Open-source QGIS cannot open .apr files directly. Open the .apr in a text editor to identify the referenced Shapefile/coverage paths, then open those data sources in QGIS and rebuild the project. QGIS natively reads Shapefiles, coverages and most ArcView-era rasters.
Notepad++ (text inspection)
Open-source Open in Notepad++ to inspect the plain text content, recover file paths to referenced data sources, and understand the project structure. Useful as a data-recovery step when the original ArcView installation is unavailable. Technical details
deep spec| Encoding | Plain 7-bit ASCII text; no BOM; editable in any text editor |
| Container | Flat plain-text file; no binary wrapper |
| Typical file size | 10 KB - 500 KB (grows with number of views, layers, Avenue scripts, and legend definitions) |
| Top-level sections | Project header, View (map display) blocks, Legend/AVL symbol definitions, Layout (print) blocks, Avenue script blocks, Table and Chart blocks |
| Data storage model | References only - stores absolute or relative file paths to .shp, .dbf, .shx, raster files, and ArcInfo coverages; no embedded geodata |
| Avenue scripting | Avenue script source code stored as embedded plain text; scripts automate GIS analysis and custom ArcView workflows |
| Security model | No encryption or compression; .apr and all referenced data are unprotected plain text |
| Platform support | Windows, Classic Mac OS / early macOS, Unix/Solaris (ArcView 3.x was cross-platform) |
| Format lifespan | ArcView GIS 1.0 (1992) through ArcView GIS 3.3 (2002); format was stable across the entire 3.x series |
| Successor formats | .mxd (ArcMap Document, ArcGIS 8.x, 2000) and .aprx (ArcGIS Pro Project, 2015) |
| Modern hardware requirement | ArcView 3.x runs on Windows XP; requires a virtual machine on Windows 10/11 |
| Migration | No native import in QGIS or ArcGIS Pro; each data layer must be manually re-added to the new platform |
| Released | 1992 (ArcView GIS 1.0, Esri) |
| Latest version | ArcView GIS 3.3 (2002) - final ArcView 3.x release; format unchanged since |
| Specification | support.esri.com |
APR conversions
Community Q&A
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