[Fixed!] Problem with OpenRocket PDFs on Mac

[rocketgeek101]

Anybody else have this problem? Today I wanted to export one of my OpenRocket designs as a PDF. But when I view the PDF all I can see of the design is the internal components. I've attached a few screen captures to show you what I'm talking about. The first one is the design as it should appear; the second one is what I get when viewing the design PDF.

The computer I'm using is an iMac running Mountain Lion. (I've also noticed this issue when viewing design PDFs on iOS devices. As far as I know, Apple's computers should support these PDFs.) (I haven't noticed this issue on a Windows computer, so I think this is Mac/iOS related).

Anyway, I'm pretty tired so I hope this post is understandable. Hopefully someone here can help me fix this problem.

 

[blackbrandt]

Not just you. I have the same problem.

 

[kruland]

Is this with OpenRocket 13.05? Please try the same thing with the example file Simple Model Rocket and let me know if that one works.

Kevin

 

[duckhead]

What version of Java are you running? From a terminal session: java -version


Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

Is this with OpenRocket 13.05? Please try the same thing with the example file Simple Model Rocket and let me know if that one works.

Kevin

Yes this is OpenRocket 13.05. I did what you said and exported the example design Simple Model Rocket. Didn't work. I can still only see some of the internal components.

 

[rocketgeek101]

What version of Java are you running? From a terminal session: java -version


Doug

I'm not sure. Where would I go to find out? Our computer is the latest generation iMac running OS X Mountain Lion.

 

[kruland]

One other thing to check which could be useful, can you try printing to a real printer directly from OR?

Thanks

 

[duckhead]

Using Finder, click on 'Applications'. Then click on 'Utilities'. Then click on 'Terminal'. That will open a window that you can enter commands. In there type this: java -version

Copy the output and paste it back here. Older versions of some Mac Java releases did not correctly render some UI components (and the PDF generator relies on that).

Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

One other thing to check which could be useful, can you try printing to a real printer directly from OR?

Thanks

Just did that. Even on the printed version I can still only see the internal components.

 

[rocketgeek101]

Using Finder, click on 'Applications'. Then click on 'Utilities'. Then click on 'Terminal'. That will open a window that you can enter commands. In there type this: java -version

Copy the output and paste it back here. Older versions of some Mac Java releases did not correctly render some UI components (and the PDF generator relies on that).

Doug

Did what you said. This is what I got.

 

[kruland]

Just did that. Even on the printed version I can still only see the internal components.

Thanks for checking this. I'm honestly a little stumped. There's a couple of ideas - have you customized the lines used in drawing the figures? For example, edit the body tube on the rocket, select the Appearance tab, and look at the "Figure Style" settings. Try setting the component color to black and line style to solid.

Can you post the ork file?

Kevin

 

[duckhead]

Bizarre. I'm running Mountain Lion on a Mac Book Pro and just installed 1.6_45 like you (I normally run 1.7_21) and PDFs generate fine.

Normally, I'd recommend upgrading Java to 1.7_21 but unfortunately that will break 3D (due to non-OR bugs).

Would you mind saving one of the bad PDFs and posting it here? I'd like to inspect it.

Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

Thanks for checking this. I'm honestly a little stumped. There's a couple of ideas - have you customized the lines used in drawing the figures? For example, edit the body tube on the rocket, select the Appearance tab, and look at the "Figure Style" settings. Try setting the component color to black and line style to solid.

Can you post the ork file?

Kevin

I haven't changed any of the default setting to the components except for the component colour in the 3D finished view.
Here is the ork file, though I don't think the problem is limited to this one.

View attachment Mach_buster_ 54.ork

 

[rocketgeek101]

Bizarre. I'm running Mountain Lion on a Mac Book Pro and just installed 1.6_45 like you (I normally run 1.7_21) and PDFs generate fine.

Normally, I'd recommend upgrading Java to 1.7_21 but unfortunately that will break 3D (due to non-OR bugs).

Would you mind saving one of the bad PDFs and posting it here? I'd like to inspect it.

Doug

Here is the PDF of the design posted above.

View attachment Mach_Buster_54.pdf

 

[duckhead]

Your PDF (using Preview) renders fine for me. What PDF viewer are you using?

Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

Your PDF (using Preview) renders fine for me. What PDF viewer are you using?

Doug

Preview as well. If it wasn't for Blackbrandt's post, I'd think this issue was limited to me. Have you perhaps changed any settings in your copy of Preview?

 

[duckhead]

No changes to Preview. I also opened it in Safari and Chrome and it was fine. Then I opened it on my Android phone using two different PDF viewers and it also was fine for both of them.

Doug

 

[duckhead]

Another thing you could try is installing Adobe Reader for Mac and seeing if that can display it.

https://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5588

Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

Hymmmm... This is interesting. When I open the PDF in preview, and then select show thumbnails a little sidebar opens up displaying thumbnails of the pages in the document. The Design appears properly in the thumbnail, but not on the actual page. See attachment.

 

[JPVegh]

I am using windows and have had a problem of not fully rendering the rocket drawing in all versions of OR including the latest.

 

[rocketgeek101]

Ok, now I'm really confused. I just discovered that if I zoom out the document; at a certain point the design appears properly. If I magnify the document anymore then what's shown in the screenshot attached, the design reverts to just showing the internal components. same goes for the thumbnails; if I make them any bigger then what's shown in the screenshot.

I have no idea why this is. Could I have done something to the file while designing the rocket to cause this? I don't think thats the case though, as I have this same problem when I export a PDF of one of the example designs. I also don't think it's my computer, as Blackbrandt says he has this same issue.

 

[kruland]

I think there is a problem with the rendering on your computer. I notice that all the lines not displayed are solid - the dotted lines seem to appear just fine. Perhaps, the lines drawn by OR are too thin?

Do you have one of those fancy retina displays?

Kevin

 

[duckhead]

rocketgeek101 -

It's definitely something with your environment/setup since I can view them on my Mac (with Mountain Lion) and also on an Android using 5 different PDF viewers. This indicates that the PDF itself is being generated correctly, but that something in your rendering pipeline is causing the issue. Since resizing the image in Preview makes it appear, the culprit seems to be the interplay between Preview and your particular display.

Please try viewing it with a different tool (such as Adobe's). That at least will remove your installation of Preview from the equation (Mac's have .plist files that govern how applications are configured. It's possible that the .plist files for Preview have become corrupted. It's a simple fix if that's the case, but first things first.)

Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

I downloaded Adobe Reader as you suggested. Works perfectly!

I much prefer Preview however, so if you could try to help me get these files to work properly using Preview, it would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

-S

 

[Sully]

Here is the PDF of the design posted above.

In case anyone is trying to track down this problem, I can report that I have the same problem (internal components only) on my iPhone (4s, ios 6.1.3)

 

[duckhead]

rocketgeek101 -

Do you have the 21.5" or 27" iMac?

Here's another thing to try with Preview. On the menu bar under Preview (top left) click on 'Preferences...'. A small dialog should pop-up - click the PDF icon in the top row. In the PDF preferences there should be a section for "Viewing documents". Uncheck "Smooth text and line art." This will disable anti-aliasing which can affect how thin lines are drawn. Does the body component render after that? It's typically better to have have this enabled (easier reading of text) but I'm just curious if it has an effect.

Doug

 

[rocketgeek101]

rocketgeek101 -

Do you have the 21.5" or 27" iMac?

Here's another thing to try with Preview. On the menu bar under Preview (top left) click on 'Preferences...'. A small dialog should pop-up - click the PDF icon in the top row. In the PDF preferences there should be a section for "Viewing documents". Uncheck "Smooth text and line art." This will disable anti-aliasing which can affect how thin lines are drawn. Does the body component render after that? It's typically better to have have this enabled (easier reading of text) but I'm just curious if it has an effect.

Doug

I just did this. The components still aren't rendering.

It's the 21.5" iMac. It's only about 3 weeks old at that!

 

[rocketgeek101]

Well I've played around quite a bit with Preview since my last post in this thread; and still haven't managed to get it to render these PDF's properly. Hopefully I will eventually figure it out, but for now I've just decided to set Adobe Reader as my default application to open PDFs. If anybody figures out the solution to this problem, please take the time to post it here.

Thanks,

-S

 

[rocketgeek101]

I know I have been experiencing a lot of issues with OR as of late. As it turns out, I discovered that using Adobe Reader instead of Preview does not solve the problem discussed in this thread entirely as I still get the issue when printing an OR pdf directly from Adobe. Or in other words the PDF looks fine on the computer screen but I still get the issue on the printed version. So far my only fix for getting a properly printed version has been to email the PDF's to myself and download them from my webmail onto my moms work computer (which is running on windows) and print from there.

 

[kruland]

Are you printing on the same printer?

Kevin