The dashed lines represent shiny::isolate() calls.
In the picture above, plotObj is currently executing an isolate command and is retrieving the height and width of distPlot.
When a reactive object is retrieved within an isolate() command, there is not direct dependency created. reactlog does display that the value was read (by using dashed lines), which also signals that plotObj will not invalidate due to a change in clientData$output_distPlot_width or `clientData$output_distPlot_height.