Shaded view in PDF is raster?

[Hunter]

Hi,

I'm having an issue that my shaded views look flat and are raster images when I output to PDF. The views look great in Alibre's DRW, but the PDF looks, well, NOT great (but only the shaded views).

Is this a known issue? I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.

I tested with Microsoft PDF writer and another PDF creator, I get exactly the same result. See below. Any way to fix this?

 

[DavidJ]

Try with the built in PDF Writer - that is part of the HOOPS package that generates the graphics in the first place.

Microsoft's 'print to PDF' is know to sometimes give poor results with Alibre.

 

[JST]

Do you have that as an alibre file you can post? I'd like to try it with the PDF program I use.

 

[Hunter]

Do you have that as an alibre file you can post? I'd like to try it with the PDF program I use.

Yes, I'll post later today/tonight. Will also try the built-in PDF generation option as per your suggestion.

 

[bigseb]

When you say raster are you referring to the anti-aliasing of the edges?

 

[Hunter]

When you say raster are you referring to the anti-aliasing of the edges?

Sort of... In a PDF, which is mainly vector based, although it can also handle bitmpas, one expects the lines to be lines, arcs to arcs, etc, not pixels that make it look like a line or arc or spline. Vectors scale without affecting display fidelity, whereas a raster image becomes pixelated as you zoom in enough. The internal representation is therefore different. It is similar to an embedded font as opposed to a bitmap font. Hope my explanation makes sense?

 

[Hunter]

Do you have that as an alibre file you can post? I'd like to try it with the PDF program I use.

I checked now, also see the Moiré effect on my machine. Really odd.

 

[Hunter]

Try with the built in PDF Writer - that is part of the HOOPS package that generates the graphics in the first place.

Microsoft's 'print to PDF' is know to sometimes give poor results with Alibre.

I tried with the built-in PDF publisher (HOOPS 3D), that works as expected. Shaded views not flat anymore, edges are lines and not pixelated (raster).
Thanks!

 

[MichaeeeL]

I found this problem also in the beta v21

 

[Hunter]

Yes, HOOPS PDF creates nice looking PDFs, but it does NOT embed fonts in the PDF on my system. It does embed fonts when you publish 3D PDFs for some reason, but not for 2D PDFs. That's why Alibre fonts show up as dots or other symbols in PDFs on people's PCs who do not have those fonts installed on their systems (if the PDF is created using HOOPS). I create 2D PDFs using FlexiPDF, but shaded views come out flat.

Will hopefully be fixed in the near future.