The manual describes how “starring” custom playing techniques makes them available in all future Dorico projects.
However, I also remember there was a post explaining in a bit more detail where exactly this gets saved in an xml in Windows and also that this xml entry can be later transferred to “Default Library Additions” folder. But I can’t seem to be able to find that post anymore.
If anyone could point me in the right direction, I’d be very grateful.
The DefaultLibraryAdditions folder lives here in Windows:
Users\yournamehere\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Dorico 4\DefaultLibraryAdditions
For example, when I ran the VSL for Dorico installer, it installed a file called vsl-playing-techniques.doricolib in this folder that contains the additional Playing Techniques that the VSL Expression Maps reference, so those are always available.
You can certainly add your own custom playing techniques to this folder too, by copying the relevant info out of your userlibrary.xml file, and pasting into a doricolib file. An easy way to figure out what the “relevant info” is, is to first back up your userlibrary.xml file, then delete it, and restart Dorico. Dorico will recreate a blank userlibrary.xml file so any Save as Default additions will be obvious in the file, as no other settings are in there. Some contexts like fontstyles generally aren’t necessary to include if you want Dorico to reference your actual fontstyles once you restore your real userlibrary.xml file. This works with any Save as Default settings, so it’s an interesting way to figure out what is possible with doricolib files.
Thank you as always @FredGUnn. I figured out it was userlibrary.xml after making that post.
What I’d like to do is create a specific “style and engraving” xml that will be kept in DefaultLibraryAdditions. I have that folder backed up in OneDrive. As I use 2 computers, each one is reading from the same folder, so, in other words, I have a central location where these customized xml files live. My custom instruments already live there in a separate xml file.
I just couldn’t remember if an xml in that folder needs to have any specific name (e.g. userlibrary) so that Dorico correctly updates the custom settings.
I think any doricolib file in DefaultLibraryAdditions will be read. I’ve got a bunch of different files in mine that all do different things like score order, chord symbols, page templates, clefs, instruments, etc. I’m not sure how to have Dorico read files that aren’t in that default location though. How does Dorico know to look in your centralized folder? I didn’t see a setting for that in preferences.xml or userlibrary.xml although maybe I missed it. Was that a setting during installation?
There are some xml files that will be read only with specific names though. I have a custom gradients file, but it had to be called gradients.xml and placed in the user Dorico 4 folder.
I am using the symbolic link connection in Windows. The actual “DefaultLibraryAdditions” is sitting in my OneDrive folder, but a special system link in Windows is making Dorico believe it’s sitting in its usual directory. Works like a charm as a kind of a central hub between computers.
Yes, I’m going to experiment with userlibrary.xml today - exactly in the way you have organized your libraries. Thanks!
Very cool! I wasn’t aware of how to set up a symbolic link. Thanks!
Does anyone know how to do this type of thing on a Mac? I’ve tried creating an alias for the default library additions folder, but it doesn’t seem to work…the actual folder needs to be in the Dorico 4 folder in Application Support it seems. Sharing folders via iCloud Drive between a desktop and a laptop would be very useful.
Mac aliases are different from symlinks: the latter behaves as if it is the original, which I think is what you need. A quick search for “macOS symlink” yields several helpful guides. It’s a simple terminal command, ln -s [target] [link location].
I use this:
Jesper
Yes! Just found this on GitHub and it’s working! This is great - Thank you