This took me by surprise.
In the score, there are dotted quarter notes, marked p<
Both dynamic and hairpin appear fine.
Unfortunately, I noticed too late (today was the concert, and I didn’t notice this until a few minutes before leaving for the concert hall), but in the part the hairpin was completely absent.
I’m guessing the algorithm figured there wasn’t enough horizontal space in the part for the hairpin? (it’s not like it’s THAT tight spacing-wise).
I couldn’t affect the hairpins in the part because they were entirely absent.
I ended up moving them in the score (lengthening them a bit, until the next half beat), which forced them to appear in the part.
But it was frustrating to see that an engraving element was entirely missing from a part.
Is there a way around this?
Would Signposts show that a hairpin was elided from the part because of space constraints? (I usually work with Signposts not showing, I find them distracting in general)
I just checked this: no
Can you attach a project?
unfortunately no. I wouldn’t be able to cut down to the erroneous spot without altering the spacing itself, which is the problem. (I MIGHT be able to, but I simply don’t have the time to start fiddling with a file just for a sample)
Does the hairpin typically cover the full duration of the dotted quarter? Of course the p takes up some of the space, and parts very often end up with more compact note spacing than the score.
This problem of short hairpins disappearing in parts has been discussed before. I believe no changes have been made in this area.
in this case I had simply selected the dotted quarter notes and using the dynamics popover inserted “p<”.
So I’m going to presume that hairpin took up the full duration, or at least, until the end of the dotted quarter. (???)
Dorico does try to guard against this, by adding space for the hairpin: indeed, you can influence how much space is added for the hairpin in the Advanced Options section of the Gradual Dynamics section of the Dynamics page of Engraving Options.
However, when spacing gets really tight, and particularly when there are immediate dynamics at either or both ends of the hairpin, it’s possible for the hairpin to end up so short that Dorico decides not to draw it, because it would otherwise look more like a < character or even a slightly bent vertical line.
Normally this should only happen when the spacing is sufficiently constrained that the system is full or overfull, but if you have any contrary examples where the system is still less than 100% full and the hairpin isn’t drawing, it would be interesting to see it. You don’t need to cut anything down – you can just email the project to me, telling me in which layout, flow, and bar the problem can be seen.
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I had corrected the issue by stretching the hairpins to the next beat (a slightly less-than-ideal solution), but I can try and replace the dynamics to their original form (ie: by inserting new ones) and send it to you.
EDIT: it tells me the system is at 91.6% full, so there doesn’t seem to be any reason for the hairpins to be truncated or elided. and yet, they disappear in the part.
RE-EDIT: by changing the “minimum length for hairpins” from the default 3 to 2.5, the hairpins now appear. but I find them too short. So I guess I’ll be dragging them to the next beat anyway.