Printing issues with solids

Since you are using filled hidden lines you need to use rasterized in order to print the fills. Note that MicroStation can print regular hidden line in non-rasterized mode.

Thanks - regular hidden lines would be fine. But as I have now discovered, they don't come out right when I reference the 3D model in a 2D model which is then referenced in the sheet. Or could this maybe be "nesting" issue? (See reply to George A. Martin above)

Hi Sunna Vidarsdottir!
I see it's been 5 days since your post was last addressed. Was this fixed? Did you figure it out?
In the Help.zip
I see you have help.dgn It contains 4 Models. 2 (Sheet) models and 2 (Design) Models.
When I opened your HELP,dgn, I am in the "Not ok" (Sheet) model.  I see nothing because you are Live referenced to the  (Design) model called "2d" that has an external Referenced, that was not included. so these 2 Models are VOID.
I do see your "Default" model, is a (Design) type, 3D model, with 3D Graphics (Solids) contained within it.
I see you have a 4th Model (Sheet type) called "Prints OK" which is referenced to the Default 3D Model. Everything looks OK, and as Ed Yepes stated, you need to have the "Rasterize" switch turned On when plotting/printing to pdf for the Linework to render properly in the output pdf.
The "Prints OK.pdf" you posted, looks like it was printed from the "Prints OK" model.
"Prints OK" has 2 (No Nested) reference attachments with the Presentation set to "Filled Hidden Line"
I did note you had several "Saved Views" stored in the "Default" Model. Not sure what you are doing with these since you don't seem to be referencing Saved Views.
The shading (fills) on the solids are very light colors, which makes them hard to see on white background, so I enlarged the top view of the cage and added a light blue shape behind the referenced files, so it would display better. Then I plotted 2 pdf's. One with Rasterize On, and one with Rasterize Off! Both of the PDF's look and Print OK. (See attached), Does this help you?PDF

PDF

I printed each to a Black/White printer and the one with Raster On came out in Greyscale as expected.

Ok, I think I finally figured out why I could see "Not ok" and you couldn't...or at least I hope so.

Can you see the model (design) called 2D? "Not ok" references that one, whereas "Prints ok" references the 3D model directly and then for some reason everything prints very weird (like the Not ok.pdf).

I think I 've found a solution though.

When I reference the 3d model in the 2d design view (not the sheet), if I change the setting of visible edges in the reference dialogue from "dynamic" to "cached."

The downside to that is that now if I make changes to the 3d model, I need to manually reload every instance of it, which is a small price to pay. 

I'll try one more time to send the file, since I think there must be a solution that doesn't come at the cost of the convenience it is to be able to change a 3d model in one place and all the drawings that contain it, (viewed from different angles, in different settings), update automatically. 

It's not an issue for my work at the moment, but like I said - it does take away some of the functionality.

Thanks for all your answers :)

 5466.help.zip

Have you tried, going into the model "Not ok", going into the Reference dialog, and changing the Reference file "Presentation" to "Hidden Line"? That should give you what you want in the view, and also give the output you want. (using PDF.PltCfg (without turning the "Rasterized" On)). I think this would be better than turning on the Cached Visible Edges in the Model called "2d".

The presentation option in the reference dialogue doesn't seem to do anything at all. But now for some mysterious reason everything prints just fine, whatever the settings. I can't reproduce get the ugly thing seen in "not OK.pdf" even if I try. So I guess we can say the issue is solved and I've discovered a few more settings to play around with when things aren't working the way I want them to....even if I have no clue what the issue was to begin with.

Thanks for all your help.

I don't know if we helped, but happy it seems to be resolved! Sometimes it's just helpful to talk things over with others. Just writing it down, so others understand, helps resolve the problem!

I don't know if we helped, but happy it seems to be resolved! Sometimes it's just helpful to talk things over with others. Just writing it down, so others understand, helps resolve the problem!