IWBNI there were an option to specify whether or not staves should be respaced automatically when optimizing systems, and in the case when staves are to be respaced automatically, whether or not staff positions should be based upon those of the global staff set or existing staff positions.

As it is now, in all cases the following algorithm is used to respace staves automatically during the process of optimization:

1. For each staff in the system, set the Distance From Top (i.e. that which is displayed on the Staff Usage List dialog box when the bottom handle of the staff has been selected) to the value of the Distance From Top for the corresponding staff in the global staff set (i.e. that which is displayed on the Staff Usage List dialog box when the top handle of the staff has been selected).

 
2. Visit each staff of the system from top to bottom, one at a time. If the staff is not to be removed as a result of optimization, go to the next staff. Otherwise, remove the staff from the system and set the Distance From Top for the next staff in the system to be equal to that of the staff that has been removed. And, move all subsequent staves in the system by the same amount by which this next staff in the system has been moved, so as to maintain the same intra-staff spacing as in the global staff set. Then, go to the next staff of the system.

In the case when the system that is being optimized had already been optimized, and some staves in the system had been moved to be different from the global staff set, the position of such staves will be changed to conform to the global staff set.

This feature would be useful in the case when one must optimize a given system that has already been optimized and one does not wish to delete adjustments that have been made to the vertical position of the staves of the optimized system. For example, one might need to re-optimize a system when all music is to be removed from a given staff of a system after the system has been optimized, and after all intra-staff spacing has been adjusted. In this case, one might wish to optimize the system again to remove the empty system, and automatically respace the remaining staves of the system by using the existing positions of the staves in the optimized system instead of those of the global staff set.

Also, this feature would be useful for those who wish to use staff optimization to create a score in which each staff appears in the same vertical position (i.e. Distance From Top) in each system, and all empty staves of a system are hidden.

This could be implemented by adding the following controls to the Staff System Optimization dialog box:

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Staff System Optimization Dialog Box

[ ] Respace Staves
     [ ] Use Current Positions for Systems that are Already Optimized
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If the option Respace Staves is not selected, staves would not be respaced as a result of optimization. In this case, the option Use Current Positions for Systems that are Already Optimized would be disabled.

If the option Respace Staves is selected, staves would be respaced automatically. If the option Use Current Positions for Systems that are Already Optimized is not selected, staves would be respaced as in the current version of Finale, by using the positions of the global staff set. If this option is selected, staves would be respaced by using the same algorithm as in the current version of Finale, except for all systems that are already optimized, the current staff positions (i.e. that which is displayed for Distance From Top on the Staff Usage List dialog box when the bottom handle of a staff has been selected) would be used instead of the global staff set positions.

Created: August 13, 2000
Last Updated: August 13, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b