Wildly inconsistent beam angles/stem lengths

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astpublications
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Post by astpublications » Sat Apr 02, 2016 10:57 pm

I spend a ton of time tweaking rogue beam angles/stem lengths. For example, I'll have to change this
Bad.png
Bad.png (10.49 KiB) Viewed 6345 times
to this
Good.png
Good.png (11.45 KiB) Viewed 6345 times
Is there a way to universally set the beam angle? Many thanks


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Peter Thomsen
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Finale Version: Finale v27.4
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Sun Apr 03, 2016 5:05 am

Welcome to the forum!

Those beams/stems indeed look very strange.

What are your settings in
Document Options - Beams
and
Document Options - Stems
?
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

astpublications
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 10:27 pm
Finale Version: 25
Operating System: Mac

Post by astpublications » Sun Apr 03, 2016 1:10 pm

Thanks for the reply, Peter. Beams settings:
Beams.png
Beams.png (98.79 KiB) Viewed 6321 times
Stem settings:
Stems.png
Stems.png (74.05 KiB) Viewed 6321 times

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:19 pm

1) It seems that your default Finale choice of Measurement Units is Inches.
However, your layout calculations will be simpler is you instead choose small Measurement Units, like e. g. Points or EVPUs.

You can change Measurement Units via
Finale menu > Measurement Units > …


2) I tried your beam and stem settings, but I got fine beam angles:
BeamTest.gif
BeamTest.gif (2.11 KiB) Viewed 6308 times
As you can see, these beam angles are much different from the beam angles in your example “Bad.png”.
I suppose that your example “Bad.png” shows, what you get as default - before you do any tweaking?

Something else must be going on in your document.

I suggest that you attach a (small) Finale sample document here for the gurus to examine.

This forum does not accept attachments with the Finale file name extension.
Before you can attach a Finale document in this forum, you must compress it, e. g. as a .zip file.
And the file size must not be more than max. 100 KB.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

astpublications
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 10:27 pm
Finale Version: 25
Operating System: Mac

Post by astpublications » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:46 am

Thanks for the info. I like the beam angles, but why are the stem lengths inconsistent?

Thanks,

astpublications
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 10:27 pm
Finale Version: 25
Operating System: Mac

Post by astpublications » Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:56 am

Here's an excerpt with strange beam height/beam angle. Thanks,
Excerpt BAD BEAM ANGLES.musx.zip
(97.2 KiB) Downloaded 185 times

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Mon Apr 04, 2016 5:09 am

astpublications wrote:…I like the beam angles, but why are the stem lengths inconsistent?…
I am not sure what you mean?

How would you define “consistent stem lengths”? - would that be “same stem length everywhere”? - or?

Please explain.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Mon Apr 04, 2016 5:14 am

astpublications wrote:Here's an excerpt with strange beam height/beam angle…
I am not sure I understand.

In the attached Finale document the beam angles have already been tweaked.
I suppose that you did this beam tweaking yourself?

Do you mean that the beam angles were bad before they were tweaked?

Or do you mean that the beam angles are bad now - after they have been tweaked?
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

astpublications
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 10:27 pm
Finale Version: 25
Operating System: Mac

Post by astpublications » Mon Apr 04, 2016 9:18 am

In your pic "BeamTest," the stem lengths are not consistent. The stems in beat 3 are much higher.

My Finale file was transposed, and the beam angles and stem lengths changed quite a bit. Any way to keep them consistent?

Thanks,

astpublications
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2016 10:27 pm
Finale Version: 25
Operating System: Mac

Post by astpublications » Mon Apr 04, 2016 11:36 am

Wow, Peter. I changed Beams/Stems to EVPUs and set some minimums. It's working incredibly well. Thanks for the tip,
AST

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Mon Apr 04, 2016 11:57 am

astpublications wrote:…My Finale file was transposed, and the beam angles and stem lengths changed quite a bit. Any way to keep them consistent?…
If I understand you correctly, you are saying that the untransposed document had the default beam angles and stem lengths (= no custom alterations), and that the transposition caused some {beam angle & stem length} alterations, right?

You can remove the alterations (= reset to the default settings) via
Edit menu > Clear Selected Items…
De-select everything except “Stem and Beam Alterations”.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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