ArcGIS to PDF: Missing Geometries


Wow... has it really been that long!?!  Well, there's no sense trying to explain the absence other than by saying 'life happens'

Onto the post...

I had a map created in ArcGIS but whenever I output the map to PDF there was missing linework?  The actual map looked like this:




But the PDF output looked like this:






(Note: the fuzziness is due to transparency on the objects, which in turn are exported as raster data)

At first I thought it was a lineweight issue, and maybe the lineweight was too thin (not that that is a reason for it not showing up but, hey).  So I tried increasing the lineweight and outputting again, but still no luck.  I thne noticed that it was actually outputting a few of the geometries:







So that got me thinking about why it would display some, but now all, of the geometries.  Hmmm, well with ArcGIS being quite 'picky' about 'valid' geometries I decided to run the Check Geometry Tool...  Sure enough, self intersecting objects were the culprit.  A simple run of the Repair Geometry Tool and voila, the features output properly.

I do find it odd though that ArcGIS has no trouble 'displaying' these problematic geometries...  it just can't print them?

That's all for now,

Warren M

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