Yes, same experience here.
It would be great if Dorico could work all of its magic just in between given system breaks or frame breaks. Sometimes there are very strange results, leading to even more manual changes than expected.
I find that slightly tweaking the space size up or down can be very helpful in getting measures lined up in a better area to allow a frame break for page turns. The beauty of this is that Dorico is able to cast the music off in a sensible, artful way (in my opinion), without the user forcing things and making Dorico work āagainst itselfā. Also helpful is when you have a similar part (Clarinet 2 / Clarinet 3 for example), once you get the Clarinet 2 part perfected, doing a split view and a side-by-side comparision of the two parts can help you āduplicateā the look of Clarinet 3, for example. I know that you can duplicate layout in a similar fashion from Setup by using Propagate Part Formatting. If I use this method, I personally deselect āInclude system formattingā as this will simply put in system breaks for each system and I find it cumbersome to then tweak the part in this condition.
One other thingā¦ if you (or you believe the program) has made a mess of things, the quickest way āout of jailā and try a different tactic is to go to Engrave Mode, Engrave/Format Music Frames/Reset Layout. Voila! -----CLEAN SLATE ----- This will help you avoid further frustration.
As said, we really need to see a sample score. You can cut down a score, (perhaps only show some instrumental parts and delete the rest) and even Transform the notes if you donāt want to share your work.