Textures are not rendered in combined graphics

Question

p1 = Plot[x^2, {x, -2, 2}, PlotStyle -> {Thick, Black}]; 
p2 = Graphics3D[{EdgeForm[Black], Texture[p1], 
 Polygon[{{-2, 0, -1}, {2, 0, -1}, {2, 4, -1}, {-2, 4, -1}}, 
 VertexTextureCoordinates -> {{0, 0}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}, {0, 1}}], 
 Opacity[1]}, Lighting -> "Neutral", Boxed -> False];
squares = 
 Table[Graphics3D[{Opacity[.3], 
 Polygon[{{-Sqrt[y], y, 0}, {Sqrt[y], y, 0}, {Sqrt[y], y, 
 2 Sqrt[y]}, {-Sqrt[y], y, 2 Sqrt[y]}}]}, Boxed -> False], {y, 0, 4, .25}];
all = Show[Table[squares[[j]], {j, 1, 16}]];
Show[p2]
Show[p2, all]

results in this output for me:

However, for others (at least one of whom is a Mac user), indeed the p2 graphic shows up in the second result.

When I click on the cell bracket, and Save As... PDF, the result is

And finally, if I directly copy and paste the figure (rather than export), I get this:

I need some independent confirmation of if this a bug in the Windows 7 version of v8.0.4 and if you have any ideas for workarounds since I need a PDF version of the last figure for insertion into other docs. Thanks.

Answer 1

This non-appearance of the texture is a known bug that also affects Macs. It can be fixed by providing as the Texture only the ImageData of the rasterized graphic. So you have to replace

Texture[p1]

by

Texture[ImageData@Rasterize[p1, "Image"]]

and then the texture will show up. I modified your definitions a little, in line with what I already said in this answer:

p1 = Plot[x^2, {x, -2, 2}, PlotStyle -> {Thick, Black}, 
   ImageSize -> 600];

p2 = Graphics3D[{EdgeForm[Black], 
    Texture[ImageData[
      Rasterize[p1, "Image", ImageResolution -> 120]]], Polygon[
     {{-2, 0, -1}, {2, 0, -1}, {2, 4, -1}, {-2, 4, -1}}, 
     VertexTextureCoordinates -> {{0, 0}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}, {0, 1}}
     ],
    Opacity[1]},
   Lighting -> "Neutral",
   Boxed -> False,
   ImageSize -> 600
   ];

squares = 
  Graphics3D[
   Table[{Opacity[.3], 
     Polygon[{{-Sqrt[y], y, 0}, {Sqrt[y], y, 0}, {Sqrt[y], y, 
        2 Sqrt[y]}, {-Sqrt[y], y, 2 Sqrt[y]}}]}, {y, 0, 4, .25}], 
   Boxed -> False, ImageSize -> 600];

all = Graphics3D[{p2[[1]], squares[[1]]},
  Lighting -> "Neutral",
  Boxed -> False,
  ImageSize -> 600]

Note I added ImageResolution to the Rasterize command to try and make the resulting texture look a little smoother.

The resulting file after Export["file.pdf", all] is here:

Edit

A reference for this bug fix is this MathGroup discussion.