ArcGIS PRO how to turn off triangulated shade when exporting to PDF?

[VitalyGolubev]

Hi. I'm trying to export a 2D map to a PDF file using ArcGIS Pro 2.2.4.

The map has a TIN surface, with colored elevation. When the PDF file is created (Share -> Export Map), I can see tiling and triangulated shading (See print-screen "pdf_export.png" attached), but if I just print the map to pdf using a pdf printer (in my case - Cute PDF writer), then there's no extra lines or shades, which is the desirable outcome (see print-screen pdf_print.png" attached).

Any thoughts on how to turn off the triangulated shades and lines when exporting to PDF?

Thanks

- Vitaly

[DanPatterson_Retired]

did you set any advanced options?

Export a map or layout—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop 

[VitalyGolubev]

Thank you for reply.

Interesting. After I restarted ArcGIS, the pdf export was much better, and the shading disappeared (North-West of my map). However, the white lines (the grid) on the TIN surface still remain. Can't find the option to disable them.

[Scott_Harris]

If you see the lines in Adobe Acrobat, try unchecking the "Smooth line Art" option in Adobe Acrobat Preferences. See:

Export to PDF in InDesign causes thin white or dark lines to appear 

[VitalyGolubev]

Thank you, Scott.

The trick with the Smooth Line Art worked in Acrobat Reader (AR). If a user has a different PDF viewer (e.g. I use Sumatra), there might not be the same option like in AR.

It appears that the issue is due to transparency, which seems to be persistent with ArcGIS:

Image Transparency Issue While Exporting To PDF - ArcGIS Pro 

and

FAQ: Why does ArcMap not support transparency in EPS, PDF, or AI export files?

I suppose there is no fix directly in ArcGIS at the moment?

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Does it have to be pdf?  

For high graphics content I normally use png which is good with transparency

Export a map or layout—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop 

[VitalyGolubev]

I guess I could use PNG for now. We prefer maps in PDF. Hope ESRI dev team can fix the transparency problem in PDF/EPS.

[Scott_Harris]

Since it seems like you're using transparency, it does seem related to the defect report that's referenced in the other discussion. The only other thing I can think of is to try to lower the DPI, as I've seen it resolve similar issues.

[VitalyGolubev · Accepted solution]

I was able to work around the white grid problem by converting a TIN surface to Raster. If I use raster instead of TIN, then the lines don't show up in the exported PDF files. The core issue seems to be in how ArcGIS Pro displays the TIN surface (I work with a 3D surface in this project)  - the "transparent" edges of the triangles show up in PDF as white lines.

E.g. below is print-screen of a PDF file with a raster surface instead of TIN surface.