Hi Bob, I have a 54” Versacam printer and all my Xara prints are from PDF files through the Versaworks RIP. As you said exporting from Xara to PDF is fine and opens great in Adobe Acrobat as a vector but when opened in Illustrator the transparencies and feather edged shapes are displayed as solid blocks. What make of printer do you use and what RIP is driving it?
Hope I can help