Hi guys, I'm new to the forum, not so new to Inkscape but I'm certainly still getting to know it. I've currently got a problem with a PDF file of a map I purchased for an architecture project (the plan was to crop to my area of interest, delete all information except the contour paths,, bold them up a bit, print to a transparency and overhead project it onto MDF to cut out contour layers and build up a 3D model of the terrain). Unfortunately when loading the file in Inkscape, the contour paths do not load.

Zooming into the PDF when opened in Preview confirms that the contours are paths, not raster, and presumably confirms that the file is not corrupt. All the other information (roads, boundaries, map title etc) load just fine in Inkscape, and are freely editable. I've had a look through the forums, but this is a pretty specific problem and it's hard to search for. I'm wondering what the problem is, and more importantly what the solution is. Possibilities that spring to my mind include that the contour path is just too big for Inkscape to deal with (it's a 14Mb file, and the contours are very complex), or possibly that the government department I bought it off has embedded some security into the file to prevent editing. But that wouldn't explain why the rest of the information is freely editable.

I have attached a screen cap of the relevant part of the map (it's still only a very small part of the whole map - hence the enormous file size). The maroon contours are the bits that do not load properly in Inkscape. I can email the whole file instead if anyone would like to have a look. Any help would be appreciated. If all else fails I guess I'll just print out a raster version of the map, with extraneous information and all, and just deal with it.

Cheers in advance,

Edwin

Could they be locked, or on a locked layer? I can't see how they could be clones. But maybe they're grouped with something else, and only will be revealed on ungrouping?

I'm assuming you specifically need the contour lines for this location? If not, a while back I found something in Inkscape that makes perfect contour lines. But of course it would be of an imaginary location.

Aha! I zoomed out, selected everything, and made sure stroke style was set to a colour and a non-zero thickness. The lines are now visible. Thanks for the suggestion!