Automatic Staff/System Spacing

[jan]

The plug-in is now available for Finale/Windows: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/overview.php
MacOS is still in development - here a preview.

Thanks a lot for the many suggestions, hints and comments that I received from this forum during the development of the plug-in.

Jan
https://elbsound.studio

[benwiggy]

Congratulations on this achievement, which clearly represents a huge amount of work. Plug-in developers like you and Jari are providing Finale with much-needed features. Though arguably, much of these features are exactly what MM should have been adding the program over the years.

Does it fix things like adjustment of notes in different voices, which is one of Finale's major pains for me?

Screenshot 2.png (210.24 KiB) Viewed 8542 times

[jan]

benwiggy, thanks a lot for your words!

The plug-in has indeed many layer/voice/accidental/dots spacing correction functions.
Check out the Example 4/Note Spacing document from the Perfect Layout example page
(in the PDF page 5 before/page 6 after plug-in):
https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/examples.php
and
https://elbsound.studio/download.php?f= ... amples.pdf


When I enter your example, the plug-in currently only adjusts the second measure:
What would be your preferred solution to m.1 and m.3? Moving the red second layer note slightly to the left?

befaftspac.jpg (137.35 KiB) Viewed 8533 times

[benwiggy]

Yes. I'd even put a bit of daylight between the note in m.2. There are loads of situations where notes in different voices/layers move across one another or have different unison noteheads or have opposing stems, etc, and ought to be adjusted, but Finale does nothing.

[John Ruggero]

jan, your plug-in is remarkable, and I will certainly buy a copy when the Mac version is available. It's too bad that you are not directing Finale development.

I noticed that some elements are omitted (for example the bowings in measure 1 in the example on your site) when the plug-in is applied.

The first half-note in the first measure needs offsetting to the left by about the same amount as the whole notes in measure two. And I agree with Benwiggy that some engravers would prefer that the whole note be offset slightly more, but this is a matter of taste and situation.

[benwiggy]

More accurately, I'd say that Layer1 notes need to move to the right, rather than Layer 2 moving to the left!

[jan]

John, thanks a lot for your words!

Yes, the bow markings disappear, but this is a feature - as this image is the feature overview (see copy below).
Usually the conductor doesn't need all bow markings, so it's possible to hide them in the score (though there may be other scores where it makes sense to keep them in, so, of course, this feature can be activated/deactivated as most other features).

There are a few other things that may be irritating at first sight on that image (which has also been mentioned in the finaleforum.com).
But all measures from the feature image are explained in the manual on pages 99 to 115 and on the feature overview webpage.
The manual can be found here: https://elbsound.studio/download.php?f= ... nualEN.pdf
On these pages you will also find the corresponding "Parts View" image which is slightly different as score/parts are sometimes processed differently or require different adjustments.

benwiggy, yes, of course, Layer1 to the right (not Layer2 to left).

[John Ruggero]

Thanks for the explanation, jan. I can't wait to get this plugin.

Sorry, I guess I was speaking loosely about the left and right. I meant that it would be wonderful if the plug-in automatically put in the necessary daylight between offset notes of all kinds where stems and note heads touch awkwardly between layers and by amounts specified by the user. If it can do that, fantastic!