Help me understand PDF output?

,

I have always struggled (oh so, so, so much…) with getting pdfs out of Rhino. I am really trying to understand what it is doing though. So I wonder if someone can help me understand WHY this scene is outputting this way?

I have a very simple scene with a ‘transparent’ surface in front of an opaque object. :

  1. How can I get the dimension lines show through then transparent surface?
  1. How can I get the outlines to show through the transparency?

  2. When I output to PDF through a Layout in ‘Iso’ model, it looks quite different:

the dimension lines still don’t show up… but now the transparent surface shows up dark gray? Why would that be? That’s not right?

  1. But then in if I output a PDF from a Layout in ‘Perspective’ view… it is different…

which is better… but why? I just don’t understand what is happening, or how to control it? Why would Perspective yield different result from Iso? Why don’t the lines show through? I just don’t get it?


any help or guidance is much appreciated!
thank you!
@ed.p.may

Example File: