Hi PTC Community !
This is my first (and long... sorry) post. I write because I have been spending the last two years to solve a problem that is easy do describe :
How do I get a good display of the hidden lines on PDF files with the SaveAs PDF command ???
I still could not get the answer 
...
First of all there are two ways to get a PDF file from a detailed drawing :
1) File --> Print. Select "MS Printer Manager", then OK and select your "PDF printer" in the "Name" field. Here is what I obtain with my "Adobe PDF" program :
As you can see, the dashed hidden lines are well displayed and are BEHIND the black solid lines that describe the shape of the object.
If you modify the plot_linestyle_scale parameter, the size of the hidden line changes. Here is what happens when I change the value from 3 (previous picture) to 1 (next picture).
Now the hidden lines appear with smaller elements.
With this method, all is ok 
.
2) Click on the SaveAs PDF button in the toolbar :
Here is what I obtain :
As you can see, the dashed hidden lines have very long elements (they seem to be solid) and, if you look carefully, they appear IN FRONT of the black solid lines, in the same way as already described in the thread http://communities.ptc.com/message/158760. The black solid lines are also thinner than with method 1.
If you modify the value of "plot_linestyle_scale", there is NO modification.
In other forums where this problem of hidden lines style is described, people confuse the two ways to get the PDF and say : modify the "plot_linestyle_scale" to get your result...
As I said, my question is : How do I get a good display of the hidden lines on PDF files with the SaveAs PDF command ???
More generally :
How do I modify the appearance of the drawings processed with the "SaveAs PDF" command ?
For technical reasons, I need to use the method number 2. So, please, don't say "Sylvain, use method 1" 
.
Thread http://communities.ptc.com/message/158760 could not help me, as it uses File --> Print method.
I use ProE WildFire 4.0
Thank you !
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Hello Jakub !
Thank you for your help. The situation is now better but not as good as expected. Here is what I obtain :
The black line is thicker . I modified your code like this to get the hidden line with grey color (pen 3) :
pen 3 pattern 0.3 0.3 cm; thickness .025 cm; color 0.5 0.5 0.5
What is strange is that :
1) The hidden line elements are still too big. If I put, for example
pen 3 pattern 0.1 0.1 cm; thickness .025 cm; color 0.5 0.5 0.5
There is no difference !
But if I put
pen 3 pattern 0.1 0.1 cm; thickness .2 cm; color 0.5 0.5 0.5
I get :
The thickness parameter works !
2) The hidden lines are still in front of the black solid lines (which is clearly the case on the above picture ...). If they are hidden, they should be behind ...
I think other options need to be set, but, thank you Jakub, this was a big step !
Great Jakub ! You did it !
I now have the hidden lines correctly displayed. Here is the result with your .pnt file :
After investigation, the half_tone_color parameter needs to be written to get the dashed lines.
With
pen 3 color 0.0 0.0 0.0; pattern .2 .1 cm; thickness 0.025 cm
it does not work...
With
pen 3 color 0.0 0.0 0.0; pattern .2 .1 cm; thickness 0.025 cm; half_tone_color
It works !
For the problem of hidden lines vs geomtery lines, I will perhaps open a new thread soon. If we look carefully, some hidden lines are behind the geometry lines, while other are in front of the geometry lines... There should be parameters somewhere to define the pen printing order.
Anyway, thanks for all !
Has anyone figured out a solution to this problem, RE: I want to utilze the SAVE AS>PDF without the hidden lines obscuring visible solid lines and particularly call-outs or annotations (and avoid the printing with a PDF printer method)?
I am having the same issue the OP mentions however have not found a work around. Please see the image below. The call out arrow as well as the visidble geometry are clearly behind the hidden lines whereas they should be in front. Using a PDF printer resolves the issue however this method is cumbersome and time consuming. I have configured my pen table correctly and I don't believe that is an issue.
Thanks in advance for any help!!
Just to add a brief update….
It seems as though something very funny is going on here. From a fresh start in Creo, if I follow the procedure mentioned in my previous post it does not work, ie: the hidden lines are still on top of solid lines, call-outs, annotations etc. Now if I follow the same procedure, ie: with interface_quality set to 1, and choose FILE>SAVE AS then selecting pdf from the drop down menu at the bottom, and when the pdf export settings screen comes up I go to the content tab and at the bottom under the compatibility option I choose PDF/A-1, I get my desired output where the hidden lines are BELOW everything. Without closing Creo I can then go on to resave the file, overwriting the existing file, however this time instead of choosing the PDF/A-1 compatibility I use the standard PDF, it will function correctly.
If I then try and change the interface_quality setting to some of the other options the hidden lines will once again end up on top of everything. So I just leave it set as 1 for the time being. I have never created PDF/A files for drawings before and don’t really understand exactly what is going on here.
Ah yes, so it's 1 and not 0 then. Could you post the contents your pnt file here? Mine is still set as you can see in the post up above, that means I print in all black.
Well, as for the mapkey including the interface quality change. First you need to put the following line into your config.pro:
content_favorites_page_options interface_quality
Then also add the following mapkey into your config.pro as well:
mapkey -pdf @MAPKEY_LABELExport drawing to PDF;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `main_dlg_cur` `appl_casc`;~ Close `main_dlg_cur` `appl_casc`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdRibbonOptionsDlg` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ FocusIn `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Update `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY` `1`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ FocusOut `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `ribbon_options_dialog` `OkPshBtn`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ FocusIn `UITools Msg Dialog Future` `no`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `UITools Msg Dialog Future` `no`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Close `main_dlg_cur` `appl_casc`;~ Command `ProCmdExportPreview` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdDwgPubSetDeliverable` `DXF`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdDwgPubSetDeliverable` `PDF`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdDwgPubSettings` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_lines` 1 `pdf_hidden_solid`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_lines` 1 `pdf_hidden_dashed`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_pentable` 0;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_pentable` 1;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_launch_viewer` 0;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `intf_profile` `pdf_export.PDFMainTab` 1 `pdf_export.PDFContent`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_font_stroke` 1 `pdf_stroke_all`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Select `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_font_stroke` 1 `pdf_stroke_none`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `intf_profile` `pdf_export.pdf_hyperlinks` 0;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `intf_profile` `OkPshBtn`;~ Command `ProCmdDwgPubExport` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `file_saveas` `OK`;~ Activate `UI Message Dialog` `ok`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Command `ProCmdDwgPubCloseExportPvw` ;~ Select `main_dlg_cur` `appl_casc`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Close `main_dlg_cur` `appl_casc`;~ Command `ProCmdRibbonOptionsDlg` ;\
mapkey(continued) ~ FocusIn `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Update `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY` `2`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ FocusOut `ribbon_options_dialog` \
mapkey(continued) `favorites_layouts.InputPanel_ip.INTERFACE_QUALITY`;\
mapkey(continued) ~ Activate `ribbon_options_dialog` `OkPshBtn`;
Restart Creo, open up a drawing, and then just type pdf into the search field, you will see search result like on the following picture.
You can click onto the command to make it run from there, and also you can just add the icon anywhere on your ribbon via options menu.
Interface quality affects other filetypes as well, not just PDFs.
