No, this is not common. There may be a problem with the control. Can you print the panel with File>>Print?
Instead of dropping the activeX container and inserting the control, use 3D Parametric Graph from the Graph palette. Delete the 3D Parametric Surface.vi, that gets created on the block diagram when this object is used, and leave just the control reference. I tried this in LabVIEW 6.1 and didn't have problems printing.
Zvezdana S.