Exporting complex Xara transparencies that Illustrator can see

[iamtheblues]

If you try to export certain graphics with three or four point transparencies, Illustrator won't understand them when opening a .pdf file. It will not apply any transparency at all.
I have attached a .pdf which Illustrator will reproduce a four point repeating transparency quite faithfully.
I was trying to make a realistic brown paper bag texture to clip inside a shape and ran into this problem.
The solution? Group the object(s) to which the transparency has been applied. This allows you to now apply a further transparency. In this particular case, I applied a flat transparency and exported a high quality .pdf which Illustrator was pretty ecstatic about.
I expect most of you are familiar with the technique of grouping tansparent objects to apply further transparencies, but you may not of thought of this handy method for exporting to other vector applications.
Bob.