When I select print mode certain slurs in this example move – specifically, the dashed slur on the first system and the regular slurs it overlaps. When I go back to Engrave mode the new placement persists. I checked and “avoid collisions” is turned off for everything in those measures. Also, I re-adjusted the placement of those slurs in Engrave mode, then saved the file, then went to print mode and sure enough they move again (though not to the same place). The same overlapping slur situation occurs on the third system, but print mode lets those overlap (even if not perfectly).
As you can see, on the first system, Print Mode eventually agreed to a compromise with me – it placed the dashed slur only slightly above the regular slur. I can live with that, but my ideal is to have the slurs meld into single lines at their ends. Why would print mode change the placement of things on my “score”?
Thanks for the replies @benwiggy and @asherber
I thought that I found the culprit. I missed turning off “avoid collisions” for the slur ending in m. 13. I changed that property and it seemed to be working normally. But then I closed the file and reopened it and the problem returned. So it’s not an “avoid collisions” thing.
As far as using Dorico to make these diagrams, I have a system down now where it goes pretty smoothly (it’s easy to create the layout of how many bars per line and keep track of bar numbers, and cadences can be saved as reusable lines). I’m not familiar enough with graphics programs to know if that would be an easy setup or not, but now that I’m getting used to it I think that creating diagrams in Dorico is a smother process than making them in Finale (though sizing and arranging text frames is still somewhat awkward for me).
Thanks for your help! I guess maybe I’m just expecting too much, though. At first I thought your tweak helped, but eventually Dorico started moving my slur around again. I’m including two screenshots. The first is how I hand-placed the slurs and the second is one of the ways that Dorico will move it around when I open print, or when I close and then re-open the file.
A quick update:
I just reopened the file you sent me and it looked perfect! So then I went into print mode and the slur moved again. I tried opening and closing the files several times as well as opening and closing print mode several times. It seems to be a sporadic thing. Sometimes the slur appears where I placed it, but sometimes Print mode and/or closing and reopening the file will cause it to move. The really strange part is that sometimes after closing the file the slur actually goes back to my original placement, but sometimes it doesn’t.
The last time I tried opening the file (before writing this reply) the slur was knocked out of place again. I tried printing to a PDF file to see if maybe it’s just something that only happens on the computer monitor. But the printed PDF file does have a misplaced slur as well.
Strange that it’s not happening for you. I did find one chord analysis that didn’t have “avoid collisions” turned off. I turned it off, but the problems still persists for me. Strange, indeed…
You can get the system fullness under 100% if you take the version of the file that @benwiggy uploaded and change all of your measures to have one dotted half note instead of three quarters. Maybe that will resolve your slur issue.
Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried doing that on the first system. Changing to dotted halves didn’t solve the problem (at least not on my computer). It did throw most everything else out of alignment too, though (not surprisingly).
What’s really “interesting” (or annoying) is that when I first opened up the saved file (before changing note durations), the slur placement was actually where I wanted it! However, when I went into Print mode the slur was knocked out of place again.
Thanks for the reminder about that, but unfortunately that’s not where the problem lies. I haven’t been using the part layout, but I just checked to be sure, though. The part layout uses the default portrait setup so I would know if I accidentally select it (my diagram uses landscape).
I’ve not had a chance to review the project file itself that you’ve posted, @PSG, but try activating the Avoid collisions property for the troublesome slur and then unchecking the checkbox. That will prevent the slur from trying to route around collisions, and may make it more stable.
It certainly sounds like there’s a bug of some kind here, but it will be a pig to track down. Ideally we would need to cut the project down to just one or two systems with as much musical material as possible removed. There is probably a subtle boundary condition somewhere that is being triggered, maybe even due to a tiny rounding error or similar, but without being able to reproduce the problem at will on our development systems, it’s impractical to come up with a fix.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this post and reply. I already have the “Avoid collisions” function turned off as you explained it. In fact, I turned it off for everything so I can place things where I want them. If it’s a bug I can understand the difficulty in tracking it down.
Thanks for posting this link. It appears that this is a related issue. I downloaded the file posted in that discussion and opened it. If I continually toggle back and forth between Engrave and Print modes the slurs sometimes do get placed differently. How they get placed is not consistent and it appears that they don’t always move. Still, sometimes they are closer together and sometimes they aren’t. This all makes me wonder if slurs in a normal situation get slightly moved around by Print mode, too, but I just haven’t noticed it (?).
