PDF IMPORT Issues

[Sam_Vel_Kapp]

Hello Rhino,

Since I have phased out my drafting to my staff, this issue seldom comes up with me, but seriously, this has been haunting me forever.

Although, I like the elements of bringing in a PDF file & having Rhino Read it, is it too hard to implement a script or Macro to either trace the text, or actually bring it in as an object, why is it so buggy?

Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but I’ve tried bringing the PDF in, in many ways, but it always gives me like a bastardized copy of the PDF itself.

The problem is with how it imports texts.

Anything Helps.

Thank you.

[cdordoni]

Can you share the PDF?

[stevebaer]

You may want to try the 8.36 release candidate. We were able to solve some pdf text importing bugs recently.

Rhino 8 Service Release Candidate Available

Rhino 8 SR36 Release Candidate 1 for Windows and Mac ( 8.36.26251) is now available To get it, subscribe to the Release Candidate update stream Bugs Fixed: Annotation: Hatch: PDF output of Hatch does not Match Rhino View (RH-83523) AutoSave: Autosave: Canceling autosave recovery leaves Rhino unresponsive with black background and no viewports (RH-97909) Block: Model Unit Affects Block Text Size. (RH-82514) BoxEdit: Do not force link display precision to spinner increment (RH-84497) Build Pro…

[Sam_Vel_Kapp]

Hello Steve,

Is this update automatic? I think I am on the latest Rhino, is it incorporated into Rhino 9?

Thank you

[Sam_Vel_Kapp]

Hello CDORDONI;

It’s an ongoing problem with most PDF, but see attached the exact one for this case.

Thank you.

819298_TD.pdf (126.2 KB)

[Sam_Vel_Kapp]

Steve,

I installed the update & tried again.

I’m digging the Old English & the Hindu Sanskrit text, but it still remains unusable for professional purpose. Have a look see below.

Thank you.

[cdordoni]

I understand the preference is for the issue to be resolved. I opended the PDF in Inkscape, then resaved as a PDF. This opens in Rhino with a similar font as the original, but there are some differences.

819298_TD inkscape.pdf (581.2 KB)

Curiously, the original PDF does not display the missing font dialog even though it is checked off in the Rhino import dialog. However, the file saved from Inkscape shows the missing font dialog.

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Sam -

@Sam_Vel_Kapp

I’m digging the Old English & the Hindu Sanskrit text, but it still remains unusable for professional purpose. Have a look see below.

Could you post your Rhino SystemInfo data`?
When I test this here, I’m not seeing any text in Old English as in your images.

There is some translating into Hindi going on, and some missing / replaced letters.
I’ve put this on the list as RH-98826 File IO: PDF Import Errors
-wim

[Sam_Vel_Kapp]

Hello Wim,

I can’t trace that file, I can open up a clean Rhino file, repaste it and see what the system info is, but i just pulled this one from one of my master template files. Let me know if it helps.

Thank you,

Rhino 8 SR36 2026-9-15 (Rhino 8, 8.36.26258.13001, Git hash:master @ a34fec39e509dd6c273cf0f131e47b1a3b367062)
License type: Commercial, build 2026-09-15
License details: Cloud Zoo

Windows 11 (10.0.26300 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 32GB)
.NET 8.0.14

Computer platform: DESKTOP

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER (NVidia) Memory: 4GB, Driver date: 7-2-2026 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 610.74

Accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)

• Windows Main Display attached to adapter port #0

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 7-2-2026
Driver Version: 32.0.16.1074
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 4 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino
C:\Users\kapuk\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\8.0\RhinoGPT\1.0.9\RhinoGPT.rhp “RhinoGPT” 1.0.0.0

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoBonusTools.rhp “Rhino Bonus Tools”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Legacy Rhino Render”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\IronPython\RhinoDLR_Python.rhp “IronPython” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\BlockEdit.rhp “BlockEdit” 8.36.26258.13001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools”