In this divisi passage:
It is very unfortunate that Dorico doesn’t show an empty staff for the first group of the second violins that enter right after the frame break. Even though it says “divisi”, this is confusing. I couldn’t find a solution for force showing an empty divisi staff in one system. What is the solution here?
Hi @silvanloher, I am not sure I understand your question: you would like to have in the left page of your screenshot a staff for the Vn. II,1? Are you using condensing>condense divisi?
I cannot reproduce your visualisation (without using condensing): it would possibly help to see the Dorico project, to analyse what is going on.
Here it is. I went for an easy solution and moved the bar where the first half of the second violins enter to the previous frame since there was enough space. But now I have the same problem with the first violions. How do I force Dorico to show both systems of a divisi in one particular frame? It didn’t work with change condensing.
I mean the actual Dorico file (or a cut-down version of it). From screenshots it is difficult to see all your settings and setup, and having the file, is possible to experiment to find the optimal solution.
Here a guide to make a cut down version of a file (at #4):
Balaena Mysticetur example.dorico (1.9 MB)
Thank you! Here is the cut down version. My question really is only how to make BOTH systems of a divisi visible in the first frame even if one of them has no music yet. Otherwise, the “divisi” is really confusing and besides, there is no indication whether it’s the first or second group that is entering first.
The “Manual staff visibility” function seems not to work for this specific case, making both systems of a divisi forced visible.
I would remove the condensing changes that you created at the divisis and change the one at the start to prevent condensing divisi for the violins.
Whether you want to re-enable the divisi condensing later is your choice.
Ah! Thank you! You are amazing!
I still don’t understand what happened here though. I did choose “no condensing” for the violins before and it didn’t show, but now it does.
Yes I definitely need condensing divisis later in the movement 
Condensing has subtleties that appear to be more art than science. Fortunately the forum has a collective big brain that can fix most problems!
