It’s not a big deal, but I’m not understanding what the underlying rule is to cause this change. I use a system break to adjust spacing, pushing content from the 3rd system (top of page 2) into the 4th system (bottom of page 2).
I can see that this causes the algorithm to shift a bar from System 2 and 3 as well, so I get why the spacing changes there. But the FIRST system has no alterations - nothing got pushed up into it, or pulled down out of it. So why does the spacing on the FIRST system change when I do this?
Ultimately, it looks fine either way so it’s not a big deal, but I am curious what’s going on here - and it does concern me that horizontal spacing can be shifted in areas that appear to be unaffected by what I’m doing elsewhere.
Is that the very end of the layout? It looks like it might be. If so, then when you’re within the last few systems, Dorico tries to distribute the music evenly automatically between the final few systems, to try to avoid the last system or two ending up a lot less full than the preceding ones. You adding an extra bar to the final system could be causing that calculation to be redone. It’s unusual that the spacing on that system is changing, but I would guess that it’s somehow causing Dorico to reconsider the ideal width of the 9-bar multi-bar rest at the end of the system.
I am curious if, beside the explanation of @dspreadbury
could be that the removed rests in the system influence this recalculation for this otherwise unchanged system?
Is that the very end of the layout?
It is not the end of the layout, although I’m making extensive use of frame breaks so maybe it’s still calculating similarly because of a future frame break incoming?
I can also see that that first system goes from being considered green and 94% full, and then afterwards it’s red and 100.4% full - even though nothing has been added to the system. Even if it’s the system trying to space things more evenly across the four systems displayed here, nothing has actually changed in that first system. Nothing’s added or subtracted, and yet it is acting like it’s accommodating added content somehow.
Can you upload your project @Composerbell?
I’ve experienced this as well and it’s a bit unnerving because it doesn’t make sense.
Unfortunately as this is a project for a client, I don’t think it would be good for me to send material out (though I haven’t technically signed an NDA).
I thought about deleting everything except for this bit, but honestly just going to this page I wasn’t able to reproduce the effect (the spacing is different at the point anyways so who knows if it’s a non-reproducible glitch or if it’s just not needed by the calculation with the newer spacing in place).