BUG REPORT - PDF Export ISSUES - Can't output overdue work

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 5:00pm

Help!

First -

I’m not sure when this occurred (looks to be a recent service release ) but the option to use “Save as PDF” from a printer selection has vanished and Rhino PDF is the ONLY means to get to PDF from the print dialog:

There used to be a Save as PDF dropdown if you’d selected a printer, which was a workaround for issues with RhinoPDF and now that’s gone.

In all other apps I get this when hitting print:

That would be ok if Rhino PDF worked but it’s got all kinds of problems:

On the left is the PDF output of the layout which is on the right. It’s fraught with errors, and YES Print display is ON for the layout window:

1 - Fonts rendering wrong. This is Monserrat-Bold. In some cases it renders right but in others it’s gong to a uber thin font (Doc User text for Area Room / Page Title, Page Number and a bunch of the labels are getting the “thin” font treatment as well, deplete using the the same text style.

2 - Colors are WAYYYY off. PDF of the field labels is WAY lighter than onscreen and actual prints.

3 - Some colors not rendering correct at all:

This sucks as I’ve got customer facing docs that are due, and have had to convert (essentially rebuild from scratch our AutoCad Title Block) to add a number of pages to an already existing file and I can’t even get the TB to render correctly.

PDF, 3DM and used fonts attached.

Sysinfo:

Rhino 8 SR10 2024-8-13 (Rhino 8, 8.10.24226.13002, Git hash:master @ c36ab43d576d4854b29b091b6b3a38e09decabf5)
License type: Commercial, build 2024-08-13
License details: Cloud Zoo

Apple macOS Version 12.6.1 (Build 21G217) (Physical RAM: 96GB)
Mac Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Language: en-US (MacOS default)
.NET 7.0.0

Metal GPU Family Apple 0
Metal GPU Family Common 3
Metal GPU Family Mac 2
Graphics processors
AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)
LG HDR 4K - Left (3840 x 2160 @ 60.00Hz)
LG HDR 4K - Left (3840 x 2160 @ 60.00Hz)
LG HDR 4K - RIght (3840 x 2160 @ 60.00Hz)
GPU Vendor: AMD

USB devices
VIA Labs, Inc. : USB2.0 Hub
ASMT: USB 3.0 Destop HD EP0 Product string
Generic: USB3.0 Card Reader
Broadcom Corp.: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Kensington: Kensington Slimblade Trackball
3Dconnexion: SpaceMouse Enterprise
Apple, Inc: Apple Keyboard

Bluetooth devices
None

Third party kernel extensions
as.vit9696.Lilu (1.6.2) 264B15BE-8923-3A33-A9F5-8F0FFBB80595
as.vit9696.WhateverGreen (1.6.3) 9599C0FC-6144-3136-854C-C15FFF63706F
com.khronokernel.FeatureUnlock (1.1.2) 46C7C044-AE43-378A-8E50-F24BA68705DA

Third party plugins
/Library/Frameworks/3DconnexionClient.framework/Versions/A/3DconnexionClient
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftAppKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCore.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreData.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreFoundation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreGraphics.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreImage.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDarwin.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDispatch.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftFoundation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftIOKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftMetal.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftObjectiveC.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftQuartzCore.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftXPC.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswift_Concurrency.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftos.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCloudKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreLocation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCryptoTokenKit.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftAccelerate.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftContacts.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreAudio.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreML.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreMedia.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftOSLog.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftVision.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftsimd.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftNetwork.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftDemangle.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftFileProvider.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftIntents.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftPrivate_BiomePubSub.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftPrivate_BiomeStreams.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftUniformTypeIdentifiers.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftAVFoundation.dylib
/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCoreMIDI.dylib
/usr/lib/log/liblog_network.dylib

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhMaterialEditor.framework “Renderer Development Kit” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RDK_EtoUI.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/export_PDF.rhp “PDF Export” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/AnimationTools.rhp “AnimationTools” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/RhinoRender.rhp “Legacy Rhino Render” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/Displacement.rhp “Displacement” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/PlugIns/PanelingTools.rhp “PanelingTools” 8.10.24226.1002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoDLR_Python.rhp “IronPython” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/GrasshopperPlugin.rhp “Grasshopper” 8.10.24226.13002
/Applications/Rhino 8.app/Contents/Frameworks/RhCore.framework/Resources/ManagedPlugIns/RhinoCodePlugin.rhp “RhinoCodePlugin” 8.10.24226.13002

2024 Tabloid-Size Titleblock 1.0 a1 No Use Page Layoput Size .pdf (30.9 KB)

2024 BUGGY Tabloid-Size Titleblock.3dm (837.0 KB)

Fonts.zip (388.5 KB)

Japhy · August 20, 2024, 8:24pm

Hi LewnWorx, Going to send you 8.11 (has recent print changes) and will take a look at your files. I have to run soon so will do what i can. Is there a particular previous release i can send?

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 8:27pm

Not sure exactly when this cropped up but didn’t have these problems in late June early July, so probably whatever service release, and maybe the one prior to that was in place then.

Will try 8.11 first, then rollback.

Link coming to my email?

Japhy · August 20, 2024, 8:30pm

Sent to your forum messages

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 8:31pm

Perfect, thanks, will give it a go

Japhy · August 20, 2024, 8:39pm

I am getting a Nexa Bold Regular font missing.

Here is my output with Rhino PDF (i don’t have an external printer to test the missing dialog)

Layout1.pdf (30.9 KB)

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 8:41pm

Nexa Bold is used by another title block in the file.
MVS TitleBlock (11x17 Landscape) 03.13.24

You can delete that one as it was just a guide I was swiping the LayoutUserText and other content stuff from.

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 8:44pm

However YOUR PDF looks like mine, with the same problem areas. The Area Room / Page Titel / Page Num texts are all rendering as a generic thin line, not the monseraatt Bold they should be.

Same thing with the designed by / designer / drawn by / scale / pauperize labels. The fields are rendering correctly but the labels are “thin”.

Also the “customer Name” doc user text item in the dicliameer block is the right color but the rest of the text (even though it’s on same layer and uses same text style) is rendering as super light gray (*and looking at it, all the thin stuff is too.

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 8:47pm

And on the color stuff even though they show up light in model space, there’s a much darker color set in the layers for the print color, so those layers shouldn’t bee so light (and printdispaly is enabled).

It’s pretty easy to tell what’s getting garbled if you turn on printdispaly and than look at the pdf side by side with the layout open and print display on.

LewnWorx · August 20, 2024, 9:30pm

8.11 - no joy. Starting the rollbacks.

stevebaer · August 20, 2024, 9:53pm

We changed the print dialog in in the initial release of Rhino 8.0 so rolling back service releases will not fix this.

stevebaer · August 20, 2024, 10:24pm

I can look into both fixing whatever issues you are seeing with Rhino PDF as well as investigate the possibility of incorporating the Apple PDF printer into the print dialog. At this point it is difficult to tell which one would get you to something that works for you quicker.

LewnWorx · August 21, 2024, 12:30am

So I discovered. After installing all point releases from 8.5 → 8.11.

I’m not 100% sure it’s release related at this point.

It’s very odd as the pages PRINT just fine. Just the PDF’s get jacked up.

This makes me thing that whatever is being fed to the print driver is different that what’s going to the Rhino PDF section and as such the native Print to PDF that’s normally attached to the printer would likely work.

Dunno. But it is odd.

FWIW my old title block from the last job PDF’s just fine. It had different text styles.

The major diffrence in this one is the text styles, and more specifically the font (monserat).

I don’t know if its the font:

Fontbook shows:

**

But when revealed in finder the only fonts installed are:

I have no idea how variable weight fonts work at all, but in Rhino the one variant I see in the list is Monserrat (no subtype, just Monserrat). The styles all have “Botd” check as that’s required by the companies typographic usage style guide.

LewnWorx · August 21, 2024, 2:43pm

@stevebaer
@Japhy

Managed to isolate the problem.

Not sure why but the variable weight fonts were messing things up, even though I had a dedicated FIXED Monserrat Bold installed.

When I removed the variable weight Montserrat’s and replaced with Fixed Monserrat’s the “thin” renderings and odd color rendering problems in the PDF’s vanished.

Weird.

Have uncovered a new bug though in the process:

Layout User Text and Document User Text items do not update if you change the empty the values. Some of these fields will either be initially blank or remain blank for a given usage of a title block.

If I create (or import) the either the Doc User Text or Layout User Text items with nothing in the value (key only), they render as ####. If I put a value in initially to preclude the “####” then null it out, it doesn’t update and shows the initial value.

Having them defined but with no value and importing via CSV used to work (there would be no “####”).

For some reason having a null value for a key causes the “####” to show, and changing an initial non null value for a key to null doesn’t force an update, so there’s no means of having a key defined that’s “blank”. Not having the key defined at all results in the “####” but one would expect that.

So how can I have a field pre defined Doc User Text or Layout User Text in a TB that shows no value unless needed?

The typical fields in Doc User Text are project global stuff (client name, project name, address, project # etc) and the layout user text stuff is page specific (page #, page title, description etc).

I also have a mess of “revisions” (rev Date, Rev Desc, Rev # instances 1-10) and these will either be completely global (Doc User Text) or page specific (Layout User Text, in cases where the rev block only shows revisions to THAT page). These are all blank until needed but, again I can’t repopulate them in the file or import via CSV with blank entires as the will render as “####”.

Japhy · August 21, 2024, 2:49pm

Thanks for the additional details, i’ll be digging into this shortly and getting some bug reports filed.

LewnWorx · August 21, 2024, 3:01pm

Great appreciated.

Japhy · August 22, 2024, 3:48pm

In Windows after installing your Monserrat fonts everything looks as expected printing with Rhino PDF, not so much with Mac. Thanks for reporting RH-83458

LewnWorx · August 23, 2024, 4:36pm

@Japhy
@dan

Jetbrains is broke:

Further, I can no longer log in for some reason.

My username / pw showing invalid and resetting not working.

However right now that’s the least of my worries.

After I fixed the font problem by getting rid of the variable weight fonts and got the title block all working, my other templates are having MAJOR issues.

Blocks with pre defined fields that have empty values are not populating correctly, if the field is blank it’s showing the field name ( block:fieldname ) instead of just being blank and not displaying.

What’s worse is changing the value in on instance of a block is causing the other instances of the block to show the value I just changed in the current instance…

I can’t even begin to describe how screwy this is and it would take me hours to document what I’m seeing which I Do NOT have to spare as I have techs IN field right now who can’t install as I can’t get them drawings and these are now 3 days overdue.

I Just started this new job in a large part due to my cad chops and I’m looking like a total idiot.

My job is on the line here.

Is there any possibly we we could do a teams or zoom call or something so I can show you what I’m seeing and hopefully get some kind of workaround.

This is beyond crisis mode at this point and I’m more than a little freaked out.

Right now I’m rolling back though the various versions to try to find one that isn’t broke.

LewnWorx · August 23, 2024, 4:56pm

Have id’d the problem origination version.

Rolled back to 8.5 and opened a template I’d done a year ago, and went up each point release dropping in a couple of the problem blocks. If it worked, I quit without saving, moved up to the next point release and tried again.

The Issues start with 8.10. 8.09 does not have (at least some) of the big issues I’m seeing in 8.10 and 8.11.

Fortunately the edits made in 8.10 aren’t breaking the file in 8.9 (at least so far, I haven’t tried everything).

Moving on to try to get these damn elevations out so the can start terminating gear.

I’d kill for the last 3 days of my life back.

Japhy · August 23, 2024, 4:56pm

Let me see what we can do, there was a similar issue posted recently that i’ve been meaning to get to. Let me know if any of the older versions work as expected. Thanks.

PS: its helpful when new issues get a new thread. Thanks