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.
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.
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.
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.
@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.
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?
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.
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!
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.
I wanted to follow up regarding the system breaks issue I raised earlier. After discussing with my professor, I learned that the project I was working on was created directly in Dorico, and my professor had intentionally created system breaks to separate sections of the music. This explained the behavior I encountered, and I now understand that these system breaks were manually inserted rather than being automatically generated. I was previously under the impression that they might have been imported from a MusicXML file.
That being said, this experience has been valuable as it taught me more about the ways system breaks are handled and how MusicXML imports work. Interestingly, I was the one who introduced my professor to Dorico, but it looks like he’s now surpassed me in Dorico knowledge! I’ve jokingly dubbed him “Professor System Break” for his role in creating these breaks.
It turns out there were too many of these system breaks, which caused the behavior I observed.
Additionally, my professor also discovered a bug related to note insertion, which I know that you guys are investingating further:
Thank you again for your support in helping me clarify this!
