Pdfs come out in black and white

Hello to all

Happy New Year!

and so ......

AECOSim Connect Update 4

We are having an issue with the pdf driver. Occasionally, one of the drawings on the Drawing Sheet will come out in B&W, even though on the Sheet itself is is very clearly in colour

Example pasted below

The workflow is as follows

- We have a 3D coordination model (called a DMC in our system) with the arch-structure-MEP models referenced in. In this model we create Saved Views, using Clip Volumes, which are then 'promoted' to Building Views, and have the Dataset info applied

- These Saved Views are referenced in to a 2D 'Coordination Model' (called a DMX in our system). Any required 2D models (areas, zones, lighting circuits, ...) and some graphics embilishements are then referenced and a new Saved View is created (combing the 3D and 2D models/info)

- The Saved View from the DMX, is then referenced in to a Drawing Sheet at the required scale

After a lot of testing/trials, it seems clear then that it is the pdf driver itself that can't cope with, or properly read/interpret the Clip Volume created in the original source 3D Coordination Model

In the 3D Coordination Model (DMC), we have about 30 Clip Volumes/Saved Views. They are all using the same reference files, are all set up with exactly the same settings. They all appear in colour in the intermediate DMX and on the Drawing Sheets.

But when we generate the pdfs. several of them come out in B&W

Here's an example from a Drawing Sheet

We are using the standard, as delivered AECOSim pdf driver. Which I notice only goes up to PDF 1.7 (Acrobat 8 and later)

Is that indeed the correct pdf driver that comes with Update 4? Am assuming it is

Am pretty certain it is due to some pdf driver issues (we've been having other ones that I will not go in to at this point)

Doing some testing in the DMC ..... I've found that it's definitely related to the Clip Volume ......

I create a Clip Volume, then 'Fit View' .... then do a Print Preview ..... sometimes this shows in colour, sometimes not

By zooming in and out, and doing a Print Preview  several times, one can eventually find a 'position' where the Print Preview then shows in colour.

Though this doesn't always hold, and maybe the next time it no longer shows in colour.

Likewise, some days, some of the Views that printed in colour, then come out as B&W, sometimes it's the other way around

Sometimes just detaching the Saved View from the Drawing Sheet, closing the file, then re-opening and re-attaching the Saved View will 'clear the problem'

But again, sometimes that is only temporary

I've been on this project for about a year now. But I gather this issue was already there for a good couple of years or so.

Question then ...... I though I might try using the pdf driver from the latest version of OBD (Update 8 I think)

Is that acceptable? Would have thought the pdf driver was a relatively 'independent' piece of software, and might be OK to use with Update 4

Maybe it's not and that wouldn't be acceptable/viable?

Regards