Is Dorico adding System Breaks by itself when opening a file from previous version?

Dear Dorico Team,

Attn: @dspreadbury

I would like to report a bug I’ve encountered when adding additional bars to a project.

When I insert more bars, the layout does not update automatically. Instead of adjusting the spacing, the new bars collapse the system, causing overlapping elements. The layout should automatically update to prevent this issue, but it currently does not.

Before:

After

Dorico Project (created in version 5.1.60 and edited in version 5.1.70)

Exercício 4 Way closed.dorico (912.6 KB)

I am using macOS 15.1.1 with Dorico version 5.1.70.

Please let me know if you need further details or if I can assist in reproducing this issue.

Update 1: @hamhm3 observed that there are system breaks in the project I attached. However, chances are that Dorico added those by itself, as we discussed below.

Best regards,
Bruno Marques

It’s not a bug. The problem is caused by the system break at bar 31 having its “Wait for next system break” property turned on. In the View->Signposts menu, untick Hide Signposts so you can see the system break signposts. In Engrave mode, select the system break signpost at bar 31, open the lower properties panel, and turn off the “Wait for next system break” property. Dorico will then be allowed to properly space the added bars.

Thank you for the response, @hamhm3 !

In the original file, I had no idea that these system breaks were there. In version 5.1.60, I was able to edit without needing to follow the procedure you described.

It was only after opening the file in version 5.1.70 that these system breaks likely appeared. I have no idea how or why they were added. Should that be automatic as it used to be in the 5.1.60?

Do you know if there could be something in the update that caused this to happen?

Hmmm… that’s a real head-scratcher. I can’t think of a reason why Dorico would have added the system breaks by itself. Strange! In any event, probably the best thing to do is just delete all the system breaks until all of the music (and any additional bars that may be needed) have been added and let Dorico figure out the casting off by itself, and then add back in any system breaks where you want them. (You probably already knew that.)

It will be interesting to see if any other older projects you open with 5.1.70 do the same weird thing.

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@hamhm3

You read my mind. That’s what I’ve just done! I ripped them all! :grinning:

Bruno,
may be you should update the title of this thread “Dorico is adding System Breaks by itself”
That would describe it more accurately.

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Thanks for your suggestion. I totally agree, and have just changed the title of the thread, upon your mindful thoughts. @k_b

@Bruno_Marques, do you have an old backup copy of your project? It would need to be the one last saved before you opened it in 5.1.7 and discovered the error. The attached one won’t do because it’s already been opened and saved in 5.1.7, or am I wrong?

I’d be interested to see how it opens in the 5.1.6 version of Dorico. I’m relatively sure that someone from the team or here would be able to do this.

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Dorico has recently added the ability to add system breaks when importing XML files, in order to preserve the appearance of the original layout. It wasn’t an XML file?

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I feel very confident that Dorico is not adding explicit system breaks by itself. There is no mechanism by which that can happen.

There are already system breaks in this project, which you will see if you uncheck View > Signposts > Hide Signposts, and those breaks all have Wait for next system break set, which you can see if you look in the Properties panel in Engrave mode.

The project has not been re-saved in Dorico 5.1.70, so it is still identical to how it was when you last saved it in (presumably) Dorico 5.1.60 (though 5.1.50 and 5.1.51 share the same file version, so I can’t actually tell from which version it was last saved), and indeed opening it in (say) Dorico 5.1.50, it shows exactly the same system breaks as it shows in Dorico 5.1.70, so there is no problem here.

You certainly created these system breaks, probably by using Lock Layout.

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Thank you for the clarification!

I received this file as an assignment, and it’s possible that my professor, who is a new Dorico user, imported it from Finale into Dorico. Could this process have introduced the system breaks?

I can confirm that I did not use Lock Layout at any point while working on the project. My task was to create voicing progressions as instructed by my professor, who likely imported the file from Finale to Dorico.

I hope this sheds some light on the situation. Let me know if you need any further details!

This is the original file sent by the professor:
Exercício 4 Way closed.dorico (734.4 KB)

These are the two versions of the finished voicing progressions exercise:

Exercício 4 Way closed - version 2.dorico (912.2 KB)
Exercício 4 Way closed.dorico (912.6 KB)

@benwiggy suggested that importing XML files could be the issue:

Best regards,
Bruno

(post deleted by author)

If the project was created by importing a MusicXML file, and the option to preserve system and frame breaks was set when the MusicXML file was imported, then yes, the system and frame breaks would have been created then.

But in case you might have some doubt about whether that is the expected behaviour, it is indeed the expected behaviour that if you have an option to preserve system and frame breaks enabled when importing a MusicXML file, those breaks should indeed be created in the resulting Dorico project. This is not an “issue” but rather the software doing exactly what you tell it to do.

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