if Shapefiles' .prj file is in ESRI WKT format, it might not always be interpreted correctly

[christophfink]

Encountered a ERROR 6: No translation for Lambert_Conformal_Conic to PROJ.4 format is known. when using a Shapefile with projection information

PROJCS["RGF93_CC45",GEOGCS["GCS_RGF93",DATUM["D_RGF_1993",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],UNIT["Degree",0.017453292519943295]],PROJECTION["Lambert_Conformal_Conic"],PARAMETER["standard_parallel_1",44.25],PARAMETER["standard_parallel_2",45.75],PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",45],PARAMETER["central_meridian",3],PARAMETER["false_easting",1700000],PARAMETER["false_northing",4200000],UNIT["Meter",1]]

as an input.

Googling the error showed that this is to be attributed to the non-standard WKT produced by ArcGIS – altough in this case the Shapefile was produced by Quantum GIS. I found a workaround at http://nullege.com/codes/show/src@n@[email protected]@nikinfo.py/93/osgeo.osr.SpatialReference.ExportToProj4 a similar one to which I will implement shortly and file a pull request.