Pardon my ignorance but what are spaces equivalent to when it comes to measurement in Dorico? Spaces vs mm, inches, etc…
One space is the distance between the middle of one staff line, and the middle of an adjacent staff line. The actual distance in real terms is defined on the Page Setup page of Layout Options, where it is defined in points but can be shown to you in your preferred unit of measurement (which is set in Preferences). By default, Dorico uses rastral size 7, which is a space size of 4.96pt, which when multiplied by four gives a staff size of 19.84pt, or very close to 7mm or 0.28".
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I realize this is a very old thread. 
I love “the distance between the middle of one staff line and the middle of an adjacent staff line”. That seems perfect, whereas what the manual says (“the distance between two staff lines“) isn’t quite right. I’d love to see Daniel’s definition in the manual. Also, once the manual is up to snuff, I think that it’d be great to answer questions like this with simply a link to the manual. That would save work on your part, would minimize duplication (different answers in different places, like here), and would train users to RTFM. And then, lastly, the defaults that Daniel mentions don’t match what I’m seeing. Thanks!
Many answers do include a link to the manual, when appropriate. But sometimes it’s easier just to answer the question directly.
I think Daniel may have mistyped rastral 7 instead of rastral 3 (perhaps thinking of the 7mm staff size), but the other numbers he gives are correct.
Daniel’s definition of a space ignores the thickness of the staff line itself, which by default is 0.13 of a space.
But it’s correct to ignore that thickness, because increasing the thickness of the staff line doesn’t similarly increase the height of the staff – the extra space is taken out of the defined space size (between the line centers).
A line thickness of one space, for example, gives you a solid black rectangle rather than alternating stripes of equal thickness.
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