How to line up horizontal lines or change vertical order?

Hi all - just upgraded from 2 to 3.5 a few days ago and am especially excited to get my hands on these LINES! I’m wondering if people have any tips for a newcomer:

  • What is the best way to line horizontal lines up in a row? I can’t group them like dynamics somehow can I?

  • A friend told me there were tucking index properties for the lines tool but I can’t seem to find this - does that only exist for playing techniques and octave lines? There are spots where I’m using two or more horizontal lines above the staff, and I’d like the order to be consistent.

  • If dragging in engrave mode is the only real way to line things up, is there a way to stop everything else from changing position whenever I drag one item? (a bit of cat-herding: https://youtu.be/jopw91uHpws)
    …I’m kind of hoping the answer isn’t to completely finish the piece, get everything set in stone except the lines, then turn off some sort of auto-update layout feature and drag the lines?

Thank you!

There isn’t a grouping function for lines like there is for dynamics and playing techniques, no. Depending on what you’re working on, creating a playing technique that’s a blank text glyph and setting its continuation lines as required (that you can then group with neighbouring playing techniques) might be quicker in the long run than manually lining up horizontal lines?

Tucking index: there is one that applies to octave lines/tuplets/slurs and a separate logic that works for playing techniques separately (i.e. controls the vertical order of multiple playing techniques at the same position).

Moving things around in Engrave mode: Dorico continues to do a certain amount of collision avoidance. For the wedge lines - there’s now a “middle” wedge thickness option for lines (Engrave>Line Bodies), I imagine you could create a single line that has the same shape as your pairs of separate lines in that video. That might help the arranging situation? Although it would be strictly in the middle I think, without the flexibility to lengthen one half or the other. If there are other items at the same position, try disabling collision avoidance for them if possible.

Yeah that middle thickness option is nice for isosceles triangular shaped wedges. For the ones that have this straight rectangular thick part, is there actually a way to disable collision avoidance for individual line tool items? That would be awesome. I only see text, slurs, and figured bass collision avoidance in Dorico Help.

If you set the middle and end thicknesses to be the same, you can create a ramp-then-flat-line like in your video.

I don’t think you can change collision avoidance for lines - I was wondering if there might be other items at that position that was contributing. Alternatively, slightly adjust the rhythmic start/end positions of the lines (so they don’t abut in Write mode) but adjust their length graphically in Engrave mode? You might also find a more peaceful set-up by changing the placement of all/some lines (e.g. to inside the staff but drag them into place)

Ah, those are good ideas, thank you!