setMask & layer Mask's not printing in v8 player

programming flash
1

setMask and layer Mask’s are not displaying or printing properly.

I’m out of ideas.

I’ve already submitted both of these as bugs, but I really need a solution and I would be happy to have it be developer error on my part if someone could tell me what I’m doing wrong.

I have a pre-existing web-to-print solution that generates custom vector based product sheets through Flash and a web browser. It was originally compiled for Flash version 5 and has worked flawlessly through all Flash player versions until Flash 8. In the Flash 8 player, the result still displays accurately in the browser but the layer mask is completely ignored when printing.

So, assuming the layer mask to be a problem, I re-coded the application to use setMask instead figuring on dropping support for Flash 5. I thought I had a solution. Within a single clip, setMask displayed and most importantly printed as well. However, when I loaded the working clip containing the setMask object into another clip via actionscript everything blew up. At this point, even the visual presentation wasn’t right and of course printing was not possible.

I’ve seen the layer mask printing issue occur on both Windows and Mac on a myriad of browsers all with the latest v8 player - it works fine for earlier players. The setMask problem I have only been able to test on a Mac in Safari and Firefox.

I’m not asking anyone to debug my clips (they are very complicated and my problem) but I have re-created the same issues in a couple very basic clips. (literally no more than two or three symbols on a stage) I’ve included steps to recreate them from scratch below.

I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me if I’m simply missing something or if this is a real issue. This solution has successfully generated several thousand quotes over the past years. Frankly I consider the project to be a feather in my cap and its just killing me to have to watch it die like this.

Thanks again,
Daniel

ps. I have submitted these invidually as bugs on other threads, but I’m really just asking for help now. I don’t care if its a bug or me. :wink:

Layer mask printing issue:
When printing through Flash (either via right-click or in-movie button calling print command) the layer mask effect is ignored.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Start with a new document
  2. Create a large blue square graphic on layer 1
  3. Create new layer 2 above layer 1
  4. Create red circle graphic smaller than the blue square but completely overlapping the blue square
  5. Right click on layer 2 (red circle) and select mask option
  6. Compile movie
    RESULT: the movie will show a small blue circle - which is expected
  7. Right-click and select print
    RESULT: only the large blue square is printed. The red circle and its use as a mask are ignored.

Loading external clip which contains setMask
On its own the sub-clip displays and prints properly. When loaded via actionscript into another clip it fails to display or print properly.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Create clip 1 two symbols on main timeline each on own layer. Implement mask via symbol1.setMask(“symbol2”)
  2. Create clip 2 with one symbol on the main timeline (symbol3). Inside symbol 3 on frame 1 put this.loadMovie(“clip1.swf”)
  3. compile clip1 - mask displays AND prints correctly via right-click contextual menu
  4. compile clip2 - mask is disabled on the loaded clip1