Move Notehead adds System Breaks

[jonburr]

When I move note heads to make unisons overlap at a rhythmic position, Engrave adds 2 System Breaks. Is that expected behavior?

[jesele]

Yes, don’t you use the voice column index? Or maybe I misunderstood.

Jesper

[jonburr]

Noteheads of equal value line up fine automatically. It’s when one is dotted and the other isn’t that voice column index fails… the only way I found to do it is with the Note Spacing Tool, which does the job - which is beside the point of the question. When doing that, Dorico adds System Breaks, one at the edited bar, and another, randomly later.

[jesele]

I have no problem with one dotted. Could you share a short example?

Jesper

Have you checked the Notation Options under Voices?

[jonburr]

Here’s the situation - In this case the sixteenth note heads are hidden. The problem isn’t so much getting the result, as the fact that Dorico adds automatic System Breaks when performing a Note Spacing operation.

[jesele]

Don’t know why. I guess you don’t want something to move between systems when doing manual edits, which should ideally be among the the last things you do. Voice column index works for me, or the notation option.

Jesper

[asherber]

@jonburr

Is that expected behavior?

Yes. From the manual:

System breaks are automatically inserted at the start/end of each system in which you adjusted the position of individual notes/items.

As @jesele suggests, a note spacing change is relative to the note’s calculated position, which depends on the fullness of the system. If some change to the music were to cause a measure to get added to or removed from the system, for example, the note’s calculated position would change, which in turn would mean that the manual spacing change doesn’t put the note where you want it. The system breaks preserve the system’s contents, to avoid this kind of issue.