{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285","repository_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285/events","html_url":"https://github.com/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285","id":148116488,"number":285,"title":"readshapefile() raises incorrect error msg regarding shpproj and shapelib","user":{"login":"pwgerman","id":6647135,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/6647135?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman","html_url":"https://github.com/pwgerman","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/pwgerman/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":3,"created_at":"2016-04-13T16:39:37Z","updated_at":"2016-04-13T18:03:49Z","closed_at":null,"body":"When plotting a shapefile using readshapefile()\r\n\r\n`m.readshapefile(shapefile_path, 'roads')` \r\n\r\nI received this error message:\r\n\r\n`ValueError: shapefile must have lat/lon vertices  - it looks like this one has vertices\r\nin map projection coordinates. You can convert the shapefile to geographic\r\ncoordinates using the shpproj utility from the shapelib tools\r\n(http://shapelib.maptools.org/shapelib-tools.html)`\r\n\r\nHowever, it appears that the specified module \"shapelib\" is no longer maintained or available.  To add to the confusion, there is a completely different module that also goes by the name \"shapelib\" available on pypi and github, but that does not contain the functionality suggested above.\r\n\r\nIn regard to a suggested solution.  I found the fix on this site to be useful for converting the shapefile and getting past this readshapefile() error.\r\nhttp://fascicul.us/convert-display-shapefile-matplotlib.html\r\n\r\nHowever, this conversion sometimes leads to a new error:\r\n\r\n`ValueError: readshapefile can only handle 2D shape types`\r\n\r\nWhich I have yet to find a way to resolve\r\n\r\n"},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap/issues/comments/209571225","html_url":"https://github.com/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285#issuecomment-209571225","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/matplotlib/basemap/issues/285","id":209571225,"user":{"login":"micahcochran","id":7433104,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/7433104?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran","html_url":"https://github.com/micahcochran","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/micahcochran/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2016-04-13T18:03:49Z","updated_at":"2016-04-13T18:03:49Z","body":"It would be good if the readshapefile function were able to automatically reproject coordinates from a projected coordinate system into WGS84 lat/long (or lon/lat for that matter).\r\n\r\nIt is probably meaning this [shapelib](http://shapelib.maptools.org/) the C library, which hasn't had a release since [2012](http://download.osgeo.org/shapelib/).  That might mean the project has reach perfection :wink:. shapelib has ended up in the code of GDAL and MapServer.\r\n\r\nguziy's suggestions of using QGIS to reproject is good.  OGR's [ogr2ogr](http://www.gdal.org/ogr2ogr.html) using the  `-t_srs` parameter shouldn't be too bad to use either."}}