Good day all!
I have a stem direction conumdrum. As has been noted in some other posts, there’s an issue where stems seem to “choose” their direction no matter where the notehead is on the staff. I had the same issue with a project and managed to solve 95% of it this way:
But, I still have an issue with notes well above the B staff line insisting on being “upstem”:
Is there a solution short of manually editing each stem?
Thanks in advance!
Kerry
MacBook Pro M1, OS - Tahoe 26.3, Dorico 6.2
Did this start out as an XML import?
Are all the notes in the same voice? (Turn on View > Note and Rest Colors > Voice Colors to check.)
Can you share your project file here, or a cut down version of it that demonstrates the issue?
Aaron,
Yes, this is an xml import from Finale 27. For the most part, everything is in voice 1 but, for some reason, the left hand piano is in voices 2 and 3. I tried moving that introduction stuff to voice 1 but Dorico won’t comply. The empty measures that follow seem to be in voice 3.
The bigger issue is in the top 4 horns where, in transposed pitch, I have upstems well above the B line. In concert pitch, the stem direction follows engraving norms. For whatever reason, the trombone part is correct though, I might have previously adjusted it. In any case, the question is, is there a “batch” correction method to get the stem direction to conform to engraving norms? I’ve tried a couple of things with no success.
I should also note that I had to move dynamics. After import, they were positioned above the staves as though they were vocal parts.
Project attached.
KM
Between Races - 5 Horn.dorico (3.7 MB)
Sometimes, staves are imported with “custom” instrument definitions, and don’t use Dorico’s own e.g. Horn instrument, but whatever is defined in the XML. You can see this in the Instrument Editor. It can be worth “changing” the instrument to one of Dorico’s factory ones, or editing the definition in the Editor.
Fred…
I don’t believe the stem setting preference was checked at import. I tried the select all-remove forced stem with no positive result.
I’m just going to do it manually… this is one of those things that’s easier to resolve through manual labor than problem solving. Fortunately, it’s only a few measures. Unfortunately, I’ll need to work out a protocol for importing some larger ensemble files… <sigh…>
KM
Hi @Kerry_Moffit, switch the view to Transposed Pitch (bottom left), then, after doing Select All in Write mode, switch to Engrave mode before you do right click>Stem>Remove Forced Stems: possibly some properties inherited from the XML (especially for the subsequent notes in a tie chain) are being considered/translated as “engraving” ones and will be reset only in Engrave mode .
Christian…
Thanks! I already handled it manually but will try to remember this for the next time.
KM
Wow, thank you @Christian_R for this!
I’d never have imagined there could be a difference in how Remove Forced Stem behaves between the two modes. It’s obvious here for the tied notes.
This would have saved me a lot of time on a project a few months ago if I’d known (same, XML imported, nothing ticked in the preferences, but stem oddities for tied notes even after Remove Forced Stems… in Write Mode!) You should have posted it earlier 
I think it might depend on whether properties are local or global (but I may be wrong).
@Christian_R pointed out something very interesting. I’ve just run several tests again (it’s the same whether it’s Locally or Globally). The result of Remove Forced Stem is better in Engrave Mode than in Write Mode for the specific case of tied notes (admittedly for some oddities coming from an XML, but it interests me because I’ve had the same issues before).
I applied Reset Appearance and Reset Position before testing, just for clarity (no changes in that area between Write and Engrave).
Original:
Remove Forced Stem in Write Mode:
Remove Forced Stem in Engrave Mode:
Since this behaviour isn’t documented, I guess it’s not an expected one?
