Hello,
according to the help documentation https://steinberg.help/dorico/v1/en/dorico/topics/engrave_mode/engrave_mode_casting_off_bars_per_system_fixing_t.html,
we can globally fix the number of bars per system.
Is there a way to do it with selected bars?
No, fixed casting off is a layout-specific option.
Hm… it would be effective if we could override the casting off manually.
You can: system breaks, frame breaks, and “Make into…” still work if you have fixed casting off.
But I know what you mean: turning off that function for a range of bars.
I do this, but I feel it is not efficient.
Yes!
Fixing the number of measure in Dorico could be more flexible. Just implementing the feature “lock the layout N bar(s) per system”, the workflow in Dorico will be extremely fast.
For most layouts, it should not be necessary to lock down every system. Dorico does a pretty good job of laying out the music: usually only a couple of system/frame breaks are needed. Don’t forget to set the Note Spacing value (or change it for particular regions) to a suitable value, which will give better, quicker results than forcing every system.
I know I’ve said this before but I constantly need to set bars per system and would love to be able to select a range of bars and set x bars per system. This is one of the few things quicker in Finale.
I will +1 Steve’s request. Finale has an incredibly powerful, flexible way of selecting any range of bars, setting the systems to lock with X number of bars and then applying it locally, globally or even selectively across any set of parts you want.
Yes, Dorico does cast off bars beautifully on its own but commercial type of copying work requires setting systems to contain specific numbers of bars consistently across parts to coincide with musical phrases. Some more tools to help make this happen quicker in Dorico will be much appreciated if they can be added!
Also, for what it’s worth. When you set casting off globally to 4 bars, Dorico considers a multi measure rest as one bar instead of 4 or 3 or whatever number of bars the multi bar rest is. That’s counterintuitive, at least for the purposes of commercial copying. If the phrase is 4 bars and there’s a 4 bar rest you should get one 4 bar rest that spans the whole system. Currently Dorico places the 4 bar multi rest and then 3 more bars after that on the system which is actually 7 bars.
My reasons are the same: measures per system having meaning in terms of musical phrasing. There really is no automatic answer to multi-bar rests. If i’m setting systems to four then I would want a four bars rest to take a whole line. But…if I had eight bars rest I would also want that to fill a system. Seven bars rest +bar of music etc.
+1 from me too.
The automatic casting works quite well. But if I write shlashes for Rhythm Section or Soloists it’s common sense to show 4 or even 8 bars per System to make the form of the Song clear. However setting it to 4 bars globally messes up the casting of the written notes. For a long Solo that’s a lot systembreaks. In Finale I would have been done with that part of layout by now. (Others aspects probably not 
Adding to this, I think it would be a much needed feature!! I’m currently having trouble with a piece which has a 5-bar intro, but otherwise would benefit from having 4 bars per system.
Then set the default number of bars per system in your layout to 4, and join the first 5 bars with “Make into System”.
Yes!! With the other ways I had tried, Dorico was re-formatting automatically. I feel silly not to have tried this. Thank you lumortensen!
Adding notes, dynamic markings, hairpins, articulations etc. in Dorico is very convenient, but I still miss some feature of Finale when using Dorico as follows:
I miss the Lyric Edit Panel from Finale, but the other two (make into system, and changing the scale–that is space size) are already possible, are they not?
The canonic tools never appealed to me; I just did the work mentally (thank you, Dr. Sowerby) and enjoyed the opportunity to make small changes (as Bach sometimes did) when they improved the music. I do realize, however, that particularly tone-row type compositions may find the utilities more useful.
Dorico already has a “Lyric Window” equivalent. It may not have Finale’s auto-assignment of a whole bunch of lyrics into the notes, but if there’s melismas in your music, that’s just as tedious to set up as anything else.
You can change the staff size at any System Break.
I certainly don’t miss Finale’s lack of vertical spacing and collision avoidance, and the Byzantine Page Layout.
I’m trying to think of anything I might miss / want included.
Beam to Lyrics (I suppose… 
)
Add Slur to Melisma (as long as it actually works… 
)
N-line staves (where N is 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, etc.)
It’s no secret that “music transformation tools” will be in Dorico 4. Also, the ability to resize Accidentals separately from the note, which is already in D for iPad.
I suppose Cut-away scores is the only compelling feature that Finale has.
It is an expectation in jazz scores — and especially parts — that 4- and 8-measure lines will be maintained when they relate meaningfully to the phrasing of the piece (which is far more often the case than not) or deviated from when phrase lengths ebb or flow around those norms. Rhythm section players and soloists in particular are accustomed to this practice, as it helps everyone stay on track when what’s notated is just slashes and chord symbols. Not providing a score formatted that way can be enough to get it thrown on the “maybe some other time…” heap. I cast one more vote for a quick and easy way to set that per system.
I’m confused… you can do this easily.
There are both casting off options in layout options, and you can manually set the number of bars per system with system breaks.
I think Daniel indicated at some point that a function to change the casting setting mid-flow might be in a future release. (Can’t find the comment, I think it was in a YouTube live chat…)
