I’m doing a solo guitar edition of a six-movement piece.
When I try to set Casting off/Fixed number of bars per system it makes every bar in every flow the same.
What must I do to make this setting work separately for each flow?
Put each flow in a separate layout?
Layout Options apply to entire layouts. Notation Options apply to flows. Engraving Options apply to everything.
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Thank you. While you’re here, can you tell me if Notation Options, with which I am not at all familiar, have their own setting for “Fixed number of bars per system”?
They do not.* They primarily concern how things are notated. You can read about them here, and peruse them in your own copy of Dorico at your leisure.
(* If they did, it would apply to all layouts that flow appears in, including scores and parts. This would be unlikely to produce great results.)
Thank you. Wow. I live on one small anthill in the park. Dorico is the whole park!
Since I’d like to keep all six movements in this one .dorico document, if I want one flow to have its own fixed number of bars per system, then I should separate the systems by System Breaks. Is that what you would do?
I’m not sure what Lillie would do but that’s what I’d do
(Or have each flow in a separate layout)
Yes; set what will be “most correct” for the majority of the work, and then manually tweak the rest with system breaks.
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Input all your notes before you even start to think about layouts.
Dorico does a fine job of spacing automatically. But if you do find Dorico thinks you should have more/fewer bars/line than you want, try tweaking the space size and/or the note spacing. Experiment!
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In some musical styles, the music is divided into four measure phrases. Widely used fakebooks use that format. The method makes for one less thing to distract a busy musician sight-reading with minimal rehearsal time.
I agree, and as I’m normally writing for live events I try and stick to this as well. It’s always quite obvious where I need to fiddle around with the system/frame breaks at the end of the day. And if there’s several Flows/sections of a piece, I do exactly what @Romanos said.
And if this is similar to your situation, I’m guessing that you have some other reason for needing different casting off for each flow?
This project is my edition of a 6-movement Bach suite, so each movement has its own requirements for ease of reading and making room for my own markings. We are basically doing the same things the same way. I was a bit disappointed to learn that you couldn’t set up each flow its own way, but that’s a small price to pay for this incredible software. I would never go back to any of the others. Not that I don’t’ have chronic inconveniences with this one, but oh well.
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Instead of using Fixed Casting off, you can use a Note Spacing Change at the start of each flow to set an appropriate spacing value that works well for each Flow. (This can also help to end the Flow at a suitable position, e.g. at the end of page with sufficient bars on the last line. But you can add a couple of judicious system breaks.)
Dorico has an excellent spacing algorithm: Tell it what you want, let it do the work, and make a few corrections here and there as required. (That’s a general rule for all things Dorico, really.)
I wouldn’t constrain a piece of Bach with fixed barring, though. 
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For completeness, almost certainly yes. Or emply note spacing changes, as @benwiggy suggests. Many tools, many options – pick your favourite 
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I’ll try it. Thank you.
Another factor: I use a tablet. I have to get everything onto two pages because I’m a guitar player with no third hand for turning pages. I play chôro and Bach. Chôro lends itself to 4 bars per system since the form is similar to ragtime.
Could I just confirm if this means ignoring all the other flows in each of such layouts, or if there’s something else involved?
I’m copying an orchestral work in 4 movements. Fixing casting off at 4 bars was nearly perfect for the first one. However, the other movements all use different average numbers of bars per system.
Many thanks. (And sorry if I shouldn’t have resurrected an old thread).
If it’s a work intended to be played all together, in one chunk after another, I honestly wouldn’t bother: just insert system breaks every 4 bars in the first flow, and do whatever casting off is necessary for the rest.
Manually handling page numbers and combining separate PDFs if you created four layouts, one containing just a single flow, but still wanted a continuous conductor score with all 4 flows for example, would be way less fun that inserting system breaks. Unless that’s just me.
The separate-layout-for-each-flow option is just that: an option, and it won’t be the best option in all circumstances.
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Yes, this seems to make the most sense to me too. I’d do the manual system breaks in the shorter movements then. Many thanks for such a prompt response!!
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