System width not preserved when duplicating flows

Dorico
1

Hi - I duplicated a flow and all the stave formatting (system breaks etc) were preserved, with the exception of a system where I had altered its width using Note Spacing handles in Engrave mode. Here the system was again taking up the full width of the page on the duplicated flow. (See 4th system in the right hand flow in attached).

Is this expected behaviour?

Many thanks,
Mike
Jazz Piano 1 example.zip (526 KB)

2

Actually I’m surprised the system breaks were preserved, because if there were any format changes in the layouts (e.g. there are master page changes, or the flow starts at a different place relative to the top of the page) the old breaks might not make any sense.

3

I’m not surprised that the Note Spacing isn’t preserved, nor am I surprised that the Breaks are preserved. That’s how it’s always been.

4

I agree, as Rob pointed out, you flow could be in a totally different position when duplicated (as it could start in the middle of the page).

Copying system breaks might make sense, but spacing is also very much dependent on which items are on the page in general, not only within a system.

5

Thanks - I’m a little unsure about why though, given the other comments in this thread - if spacing is potentially thrown up in the air by a new flow why wouldn’t you have the same rule for both?

Perhaps a System Break implies that the next note is desired to be on a new system, come what may in the formatting, I’m not sure?

6

Because system breaks and note spacing serve slightly different purposes.
With a system break you say that you want this note to be in a new system. This can be musically motivated, as it is in lead sheets or with showing different phrases.

Note spacing does exactly what it says: it adjusts the spaces between notes. The reasons for this are mostly technical. Items collide with the next element either vertically or horizontally. These things can change easily depending on where the other electrons are (and they might very well end up on another page).

That’s at least how I understand it and how it makes sense to me