graphics chains? and spatial notation...?

A suggestion request for future updates :
I would really enjoy being able to segment horizontally an image imported in Dorico
into several graphics frame, very much like flow chains.
This would allow, for instance, to load big symbols (made in Illustrator or Omnigraffle for instance),
superimposed to a score, that could follow the music beyond system/page breaks.
I talked about this to several composers working, like myself, who work with non-standard ways of notation.
Right now most of them are not ready to switch to Dorico, but this would definitely be a game changer !..

… as much as spatial notation.
By this I mean being able to define a part of music, a bar or a whole line as open notation, where
notes and other objects would be drawn freely in time, in a more chronometric point of view (pretty much like a sequencer). There are very few example of this is music software, one being the bach library for MaxMSP, which allows both “metric” and “roll” paradigms.

The addition of open meter in Dorico was already a really big deal,
are there any plans, even very cloudy ones, toward this?

You can already perhaps achieve something towards the graphical results you want by duplicating the same graphic in a number of graphics frames and then offsetting them manually within the frames, but I realise that’s not as slick as what you suggest. Really I think the optimal solution would be to make it possible to link graphics to rhythmic positions in the music, such that they would be able to reflow automatically, rather than putting them in frames, but I suspect that is some way off.

I think proportional notation could be handled by the note spacing algorithm, no? Do we have access to the ratios?

Thanks Daniel for the temporary solution, but actually I can’t find how to offset efficiently
an image inside a graphic frame :frowning: Anchor X/Y attributes seem to work only in unscaled mode, but in this case (I imported a very big .svg) it’s impossible to zoom in or out, unlike Aspect Fit or Fill mode… Maybe I missed a shortcut somewhere?

To answer LSalguiero’s question :
there’s access to ratios in Setup > Layout Options > Note spacing > custom spacing ratio : 2.0

Julien, it would certainly be nice if you could drag a graphic within a graphic frame to change its offset, and I’m sure we’ll add that in due course.

Sorry Daniel, maybe there was a misunderstanding after your previous post, I inferred from what you said
that there was already an attribute somewhere to offset the images freely, in the bottom panel…

There is; if you set the graphic to be ‘Unscaled’, then the Anchor X and Anchor Y properties allow you to move the graphic within the frame.

Yes of course, but in this case there is no way to change the size of the visual, am I right?

I wish I could change both :
-the offset / Anchor X-Y values (which only work in “Unscaled mode”)
-the size or zoom (accessible only in “Aspect Fit” and “Fill” modes)

I hope this is more clear, if not please let me know I can make a few screenshots.

Sure, I understand what you want to do, and as I said earlier, I’m sure we’ll add some of these things in due course.

Ok I understand, sorry to insist I wasn’t sure to be clear :slight_smile:
Looking forward to it !