In D5, it’s certainly easy to create staves with whatever number of staff lines you want, except 0. The catch is that there’s no Clef Designer, so there’s no way through the interface to specify the positioning of the clef and definition of the staff lines and spaces.
Welcome to the world of doricolib files! Doricolib files are unsupported and undocumented ways to do all sorts of things, including add or redefine clefs. As they are unsupported, there’s no guarantee they will work in the future, but here are treble clefs I had made for 3 and 4 line staves that work in 5.0.2 anyway.
Treble Clefs for 3 and 4-Line Staves.zip (1.0 KB)
We can’t post doricolib files directly in the forum, so the the file is zipped above. Download the zip file, unzip it, and copy the doricolib file to your DefaultLibraryAdditions folder. In Windows this lives at Users\yournamehere\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Dorico 5\DefaultLibraryAdditions. Just search the forum for the Mac location if you need it. If the folder doesn’t exist, go ahead and create it.
Once correctly installed, start Dorico. You’ll now have 2 more clefs in the Uncommon category:
When applied to 3 or 4 line staves, you’ll get this, where the notated note is middle C:
If that’s not how you want them defined, feel free to tweak the file to get the results you want, or use it as a template to add additional clefs for additional number of staff lines etc. Hopefully that helps!
doricolib code for these clefs
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<kScoreLibrary>
<clefDefinitions>
<entities array="true">
<ClefEntityDefinition>
<name>Treble Clef for 3-Line</name>
<entityID>clef.treble3</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<basicClefType>kGClef</basicClefType>
<clefTranspositionReminder>0</clefTranspositionReminder>
<compositeID>comp.3LineGClef</compositeID>
<clefCategory>kUncommon</clefCategory>
<clefChangeCompositeID>comp.3LineGClefSmall</clefChangeCompositeID>
<clefDefinition>
<isPitched>true</isPitched>
<requiredNumStaveLines>3</requiredNumStaveLines>
<staveIndexFromBottomLine>0</staveIndexFromBottomLine>
<hotSpot>
<noteName>G</noteName>
<octave>4</octave>
</hotSpot>
</clefDefinition>
</ClefEntityDefinition>
<ClefEntityDefinition>
<name>Treble Clef for 4-Line</name>
<entityID>clef.treble4</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<basicClefType>kGClef</basicClefType>
<clefTranspositionReminder>0</clefTranspositionReminder>
<compositeID>comp.4LineGClef</compositeID>
<clefCategory>kUncommon</clefCategory>
<clefChangeCompositeID>comp.4LineGClefSmall</clefChangeCompositeID>
<clefDefinition>
<isPitched>true</isPitched>
<requiredNumStaveLines>4</requiredNumStaveLines>
<staveIndexFromBottomLine>2</staveIndexFromBottomLine>
<hotSpot>
<noteName>G</noteName>
<octave>4</octave>
</hotSpot>
</clefDefinition>
</ClefEntityDefinition>
</entities>
</clefDefinitions>
<glyphDefinitions>
<entities array="true">
<GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<name>3LineGClef</name>
<entityID>glyph.3LineGClef</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<codePoint>0xE050</codePoint>
<isSmufl>true</isSmufl>
<alternateForGlyph/>
<fontStyle>font.defaultmusic</fontStyle>
<pointSize>1</pointSize>
<rotation>0</rotation>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<name>3LineGClefSmall</name>
<entityID>glyph.3LineGClefSmall</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<codePoint>0xF472</codePoint>
<isSmufl>true</isSmufl>
<alternateForGlyph/>
<fontStyle>font.defaultmusic</fontStyle>
<pointSize>1</pointSize>
<rotation>0</rotation>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<name>4LineGClef</name>
<entityID>glyph.4LineGClef</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<codePoint>0xE050</codePoint>
<isSmufl>true</isSmufl>
<alternateForGlyph/>
<fontStyle>font.defaultmusic</fontStyle>
<pointSize>1</pointSize>
<rotation>0</rotation>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
<name>4LineGClefSmall</name>
<entityID>glyph.4LineGClefSmall</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<codePoint>0xF472</codePoint>
<isSmufl>true</isSmufl>
<alternateForGlyph/>
<fontStyle>font.defaultmusic</fontStyle>
<pointSize>1</pointSize>
<rotation>0</rotation>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</GlyphPrimitiveEntityDefinition>
</entities>
</glyphDefinitions>
<compositeDefinitions>
<entities array="true">
<CompositeDefinition>
<name>Treble Clef for 3-Line</name>
<entityID>comp.3LineGClef</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<category>kClef</category>
<components array="true">
<component>
<componentId>glyph.3LineGClef</componentId>
<componentType>kGlyph</componentType>
<xOffset>0</xOffset>
<yOffset>-5</yOffset>
<xScale>100.000000</xScale>
<yScale>100.000000</yScale>
<zOrder>0</zOrder>
<maxOpticalScale>100</maxOpticalScale>
<componentInstance>0</componentInstance>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</component>
</components>
<relativeAttachments array="true"/>
<scalingRules array="true"/>
</CompositeDefinition>
<CompositeDefinition>
<name>Treble Clef for 3-Line (small)</name>
<entityID>comp.3LineGClefSmall</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<category>kClef</category>
<components array="true">
<component>
<componentId>glyph.3LineGClefSmall</componentId>
<componentType>kGlyph</componentType>
<xOffset>0</xOffset>
<yOffset>-7.5</yOffset>
<xScale>100.000000</xScale>
<yScale>100.000000</yScale>
<zOrder>0</zOrder>
<maxOpticalScale>100</maxOpticalScale>
<componentInstance>0</componentInstance>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</component>
</components>
<relativeAttachments array="true"/>
<scalingRules array="true"/>
</CompositeDefinition>
<CompositeDefinition>
<name>Treble Clef for 4-Line</name>
<entityID>comp.4LineGClef</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<category>kClef</category>
<components array="true">
<component>
<componentId>glyph.4LineGClef</componentId>
<componentType>kGlyph</componentType>
<xOffset>0</xOffset>
<yOffset>-2.5</yOffset>
<xScale>100.000000</xScale>
<yScale>100.000000</yScale>
<zOrder>0</zOrder>
<maxOpticalScale>100</maxOpticalScale>
<componentInstance>0</componentInstance>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</component>
</components>
<relativeAttachments array="true"/>
<scalingRules array="true"/>
</CompositeDefinition>
<CompositeDefinition>
<name>Treble Clef for 4-Line (small)</name>
<entityID>comp.4LineGClefSmall</entityID>
<parentEntityID/>
<inheritanceMask>0</inheritanceMask>
<category>kClef</category>
<components array="true">
<component>
<componentId>glyph.4LineGClefSmall</componentId>
<componentType>kGlyph</componentType>
<xOffset>0</xOffset>
<yOffset>-4</yOffset>
<xScale>100.000000</xScale>
<yScale>100.000000</yScale>
<zOrder>0</zOrder>
<maxOpticalScale>100</maxOpticalScale>
<componentInstance>0</componentInstance>
<colour>kDefault</colour>
</component>
</components>
<relativeAttachments array="true"/>
<scalingRules array="true"/>
</CompositeDefinition>
</entities>
</compositeDefinitions>
</kScoreLibrary>