In simpler projects Dorico provides a great process
for all layouts set the graphic directory to an output area
then …
when a draft revision is ready to print use ‘print all layouts’ (assigned to a shortcut key)
Now I have a more complex ‘project’ with 15 Layouts. What I’d really like to do is:
mark 14 of those layouts as “never to be printed”
carry on pressing ‘print all layouts’ when I need a printed draft.
Is there an easy way to do this?
An add complication is that my project cannot use flows. I did have 18 flows. But now I use Cantai ’ composing in real time.’ That works real great. But it only works great for a series of small projects, each with one flow - an “aria”.
So maybe I have to set the graphic directory 15 * 18 times. (ouch)
It would really help if Dorico’s default graphic output directory pointed outside the project area. Unfortunately it points inside the Dorico project area - so you end up with a horrible mix of source artifacts (Dorico files) and derived artifacts (PDF’s). That makes the backup process much more complicated.
No. I’m using ALT + CONTROL + SHIFT + P ==> Export All Layouts as PDF That does everything automatically for me in one keystroke. There is no possibility of error. If I have to go and manually switch into control-5 then select objects for every print there is every possibility it will go wrong. Something will get missed out.
The only workaround is to:
set 13 of the 14 layouts to export graphics to t:\Temp\Junk and ignore anything that arrives in the junk folder
set the one wanted layout to export to c:\DerivedArtefacts\ThisWorkTitle
So, the base of your problem is that the combination Dorico and Cantai does not work well with multiple flows for you. Don’t know if that’s a known limitation, but probably is on the radar with one or both of the teams.
The other is a feature request to set a preference for graphic exports to a directory unrelated to the project files. I can’t imagine this is on the radar too.
If I would have any influence on the priority list (which I don’t, and don’t want to), I would focus on this problem and feature request instead on a feature request to create a workaround for those.
Out of curiosity, did you see this kind of settings in other programs? I can’t remember being able to create a non-printing chapter in a wordprocessor, or a non-printing sheet in a worksheet program.
And where would your FR ends up in Dorico. Now it’s non-printing layouts, will it be non-printing flows or players next?
Except that you don’t want to export all layouts! It seems to me that your workaround of configuring the export for the flows you don’t want is more error prone than just printing the one that you want. But I guess it works for you.
Its very common in sophisticated software to have one ‘model’ and many views (layouts). Often it would make no sense to print some of those view types while others are designed for printing.
One of Dorico’s strengths is that it does the model view correctly - is not patched in afterwards.
Most word processors give you a ‘web page view’ (not designed for printing) and a page view (designed for printing). OpenOffice certainly provides that: more sophisticated publishing packages will have tables of contents and indexes. You won’t necessarily want those printed every time.
And every time I make a revision in the actual music I know that pressing ALT-SHIFT-CONTROL -P will always create the right PDF.
It’s possible that the original designers of Dorico didn’t anticipate such a flexible use of the layout concept. Some of my layouts include scaffolding parts for non existent pianos etc. I used those so that I can copy and paste stuff around very easily.
I guess I was just hoping I could mark some of the layouts as being non-printable by definition.
As regards flows and Cantai - its merely a pragmatic limitation. On a very fast machine Cantai works superbly for three minute arias. It’s expecting miracles for it to manage the cacheing of a 42 minute cantata. Maybe one day that will also work perfectly but for now I prefer something which gives me the full singing result within seconds…
The only error being the additional layouts that you don’t want., of course. Though it’s better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.
It sounds like you only want to print one layout. There is a command to make a PDF the current layout, just as with all layouts.
I would find such a feature useful as well. I have various Worksheet Layouts, some of which don’t even match any known paper size so, they are never destined for the printer.
It would simplify housekeeping quite a bit. When you have a Full Band arrangement to print/export, you don’t want such Layouts to be inadvertently sent to the printer.
Thank you for your suggestion . Yes that would help some people.
The problem is that we may not want to export the current layout. For example we may have one layout which hides blank staves and another which does not hide blank staves..
We print layouts that hides blank staves in the interest of the planet.
But the one which does not hide blank stakes will be in use if I’m redistributing material amongst my soloists.
Now many musicians are using software to create ‘things’ we should try to learn from 60 desperate years of software engineering. Software engineers have:
Source code (IP) which they jealously guard and curate.
Derived artifacts - which they create at touch of a button.
Fixed processes - to create the derived artifacts from the IP in fixed predictable way.
Actually: In addition to today’s ‘Print Everything’ button it would be nice to have a button which meant 'Export All" of a configurable set of derived artifacts you want to export.
When you pressed ‘export all’ you’d get:
all the PDF layouts you wanted to export
all the audio’s you wanted exported in the formats you wanted them.
Audios can become quite complex:
for a typical SATB choral work its ever so nice to give the choir four mp3’s each with a different part emphasised.
for a instrumental quartet four mp3s - each with one part missing - is so useful.
These audio artifacts are not essentials - but all of them can save a lot of time in rehearsal, especially with amateur performers.
Folks that uses DAW’s to do more downstream processing would also benefit from a predictable method of getting everything out of the Dorico system.
