NOTATIO

10. Any object attached to the note that respects spacing

I'm afraid I don't have the time now to give a precise answer to each of your questions. Here's a rather general comment.

While a few of these things are certainly possible, and some (single trill notes, stacked grace notes, independent meters, big time signatures, powerful tuplets) are even implemented already, you'll likely feel like you're banging your head against the wall with much of what you need. Most importantly there's no tool yet to create arbitrary lines and boxes etc. so you'll need to use workarounds or even post-process your files in an external graphics program. You can achieve quite a few things with the music symbols editor.

Nevertheless I do recommend that you go ahead and try Dorico – you may be able to use it for some of your less complicated scores and get used to its concepts (and start enjoying them) along the way. I don't doubt that all of this will be possible in the future in comfortable, elegant ways.

I'm sure someone else will jump in and give specific answers. Why don't you post these questions on the Dorico user forum as well? You'll certainly get friendly, competent and enthusiastic answers there!

Thank you Florian!
While it could be indeed great to "play" with Dorico on this stage, I just need a tool to execute my needs in a most easy way. Another important thing here is that my scores are usually done partly or for the most part by other engravers, so that could be really messy if things are not implemented and many workarounds were done for the same thing.
I have one score done in Sibelius about 20 years ago, it is not possible to edit that score today without getting a total collapse of the music.

OCTO wrote: ↑26 Apr 2019, 12:36 So, I would like to know if some or all features are possible in Dorico or not. If it is somewhat easier to do, or it is at all possible.

As of Dorico v3.1, I'll address the things that can be done.

3. Boxes have to be made using a Text object (which could contain visible or invisible chars), and setting a border to it. You can adjust the size of the border, and then position the box. The box is beat-attached. This is a 'workaround' and better functionality is expected.

4. Independent rhythm: It's very easy to use tuplets to increase or decrease the 'actual' number of notes in a bar. You can also 'fake' the actual time signature, or have a different time in one staff.

6. You can position any lines by hand; and there are also a range of automatic 'snapping' positions, such as to the barline, to the notehead, or to the beat position.

7. See 3.

8. Time sigs: These are your Layout options for Time sigs. "System object" positions means above the top staff and any instrument groups that you select. You can also choose the style of denominator easily enough. And there are a range of styles for interchangeable (alternating) meters. You could add the beat markings easily enough as text.

9. Yes, barlines can be added individually to any staff.

10. Generally, every object respects spacing! The tricky bit is creating a custom note-attached object that sits to the left or right of the note. Currently, Playing Techniques are the main note-attached objects: they sit above or below the note and cannot be moved horizontally. However, there are some 'workarounds' for side-attached objects.

The Line tool is excellent, but has no custom lines yet. Boxes for aleatoric-style notation are still missing. You might like to post on the Dorico forum and submit your usages as things you need from the program.

For the music that I produce, Dorico is now largely "notation-complete". But I'd like to see improvements in things like Staff hiding; editable Clefs and Instruments; and other features that bring greater flexibility and control to the user.

Work is underway on Dorico 3.5, which will be released later in the year: I have no doubt that we will see amazing improvements.

2. Custom Lines can now be created with Dorico 3.5's Line Editors.

Thanks benwiggy. I will keep my eyes on Dorico more often now, it seems that the things are implementing faster than I expected. Looking forward!

OCTO wrote: ↑04 Jul 2020, 13:45 it seems that the things are implementing faster than I expected.

Indeed: only in March I posted that I wanted to see better Staff Hiding controls, and editable Clefs and instruments: it wasn't long before Dorico 3.5 introduced very powerful Staff Hiding controls, more flexibility in defining Clefs, and other features for Instrumental Parts, such as Part Transposition.

benwiggy, I know you were (are) a Finale superuser. If you want to see anything from Finale that is missing in Dorico, what it would be?

Not for myself, but for general usage: Dorico still can't do Cutaway scores, which is a non-starter for those who do such things, I admit. I suspect that when we do see it, it will be more than just the ability to hide bars, but fully automatic "Cutaway mode".

One thing I'm campaigning for is the ability to resize accidentals independently of the note. (The dream would be a one-click setting for cautionary accidentals to be displayed small.)

Something like Finale's Setup Wizard, with user ensembles and templates would be welcome.

Lua scripting is currently rudimentary, and further work is planned, which will no doubt bring a huge range of user scripts that will provide all sorts of functions, in the way that Jari's plug-ins and Lua scripts have done so for Finale.

Apart from that, I don't think there's much 'from Finale' that I would want in Dorico . But lots of little improvements to existing functionality, like greater flexibility in Staff labelling in Condensing; more options for various notation elements, etc, would make all the difference in matching Finale's versatility.
I'd also like greater control over the 'DTP' parts of the program.

Dorico is still less than four years old. The rate of development is absurd. We now know that the next major version will be next summer, but I'm sure we'll see some 'minor' releases before then. Some of Dorico's most useful features -- Flow Headings, Line tool -- have been introduced in updates, rather than .0 releases!