P.S.: In all honesty, N. Grossingink's suggestion is the easiest. Go with that.

Post Edited (John Ruggero) : 10/22/2015 6:38:35 AM (GMT-5)

John, et al.,

I am almost through working out the details of a JW Lua script that will accomplish this task.  It will be based on N.'s, Motet's, and Andreo's suggestions.  To be complete, there are several additional issues that have to be considered.  Among them are the font and size to be used for the expression.  I will assume TNR 18 B.  Motet's idea needs to be expanded to include a center justification.  Also the span between staves of the relevant system must be considered in order to center the expression number between the staves, as it may be that you have increased/decreased it from the default.  The document can only have a double stave, and you must select the previously created MMR stack.  A new expression category would be nice, but alas, JW Lua cannot create a new category due to restrictions imposed by MM in the Plug-in Development Kit (PDK), so I will use the Miscellaneous category.  If anyone has any ideas to be considered/included in the script, please post them here, or PM or email me.  As soon as I have debugged the script and added a nice GUI, I will post it here.  Stand by.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU with 6 dual core processors @ 3.50 GHz (12 threads)

32 GB RAM

Realtek High Definition on board audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU with 4GB ram

512 GB SSD system disk

Four 4TB and one 1TB internal SATA HD's
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014d.v5030

GPO4.02

Cakewalk SONAR X3

Post Edited (Charles Lawrence) : 10/22/2015 10:31:09 AM (GMT-5)

Post Edited (John Ruggero) : 10/22/2015 10:30:12 AM (GMT-5)

Post Edited (John Ruggero) : 10/22/2015 11:20:55 AM (GMT-5)

John,  I'll try to answer as best I can.

>> Does MM incorporate these scripts? This should be the default for this situation.

I don't know, but I don't think so as a matter of course.  I think that some of the user developed stuff has been used as a basis for MM plug-ins if it is deemed to be of universal value.

>>If you are successful with the vertical centering, would your script or a development of it be applicable to other expressions like dynamics or even smart shapes like hairpins in a two staff part?

Probably.  I'll have to look into it with those goals in mind.

>>I am not sure what selecting "from a previously created MMR stack" means. That each rest will be converted separately?

Post Edited (Motet) : 10/28/2015 2:12:15 AM (GMT-5)

Motet,

Thanks for the feedback.  Those are some good suggestions.

1) I can change the way I retrieve the answer to the question "Process entire score/part?"  I can have a dialog box with Yes, No, Cancel instead of a checkbox.  I like the idea that if there is a selection to process all MMRs within the selection, and if no selection is made to ask to process entire score/part.  I was artificially requiring that the selection be a single MMR, but there is nothing to stop selecting a range of measures and process all MMRs within the range.  I'll look into that.

2) A grand staff is not necessary, but two and only two staves is, first because that's what John Ruggero wanted, and second because a MMR is applied to the entire measure stack of the score/part.  If there were 3 or more staves in the stack, empty measures in those staves would also be included in the MMR, which may or may not be what is desired.  Also any notes in any staff would preclude that measure stack from being included in the MMR.  Again, this may or may not be desirable.  That's why I chose to require two and only two staves in the score/part.  Comments/thoughts?

3) Regarding the font, there is no way to retrieve the character height, so that has to be empirically determined.  I suppose some kind of algorithm could be developed to approximate the height based on the font/size, but that's maybe overkill.  Too bad MM does not provide a way in the PDK.  I considered retrieving the MMR font spec from the document properties, but I did not pursue it, because I mistakenly thought that Maestro didn't have numbers, but it does.  I will definitely implement that in the next update.

4) Being able to choose a category, either predefined or user defined, or Miscellaneous could be implemented.  Then, other than Miscellaneous, you could choose the category font, or the document MMR font.  To me this does not add much usefulness to the procedure, but only complicates things.  That is why I just chose Miscellaneous and TNR/18/B.  Unless there is a demand for the category feature, I'll just keep using Miscellaneous, but get the MMR font spec from the document.

Post Edited (Motet) : 10/28/2015 10:42:08 AM (GMT-5)

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU with 6 dual core processors @ 3.50 GHz (12 threads)

32 GB RAM

Realtek High Definition on board audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU with 4GB ram

512 GB SSD system disk

Four 4TB and one 1TB internal SATA HD's
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014d.v5030

GPO4.02

Cakewalk SONAR X3

John,

I'm glad you found the script useful for work workflow.  I am currently revising the script to incorporate some of the suggestions made by Motet.  As usual, a programmers work is never done!  There can always be improvements.  Consider Finale in this regard.

For the purpose of this script, I think it best to force the font for the numbers to be Maestro/24/plain, but to restore the font to what was found in the document options at the end of the script.  I think it best to leave the Update Automatically option turned off.  With it on, bad things happen.

I had considered that displaying the lengthy intro dialog box, and maybe others, might become cumbersome after gaining familiarity with the script.  I'll see if I can find a way to flag it to be turned off.  This would require an external INI type file to save the flag.

Vertical centering would not be difficult provided you have the dimensions of the bounding box for the object you want to center.  This is not available with the current revision of MakeMusic's Plug-in Development Kit (PDK).  Hopefully this will be implemented in the near future.  JW Lua cannot do what is not provided for in the PDK.

Post Edited (Motet) : 10/28/2015 5:51:30 PM (GMT-5)

David Ward and others,

Here's how I set up my system.  I create a sub-directory "JW Plug-ins" in the directory where plug-ins go, pointed to by Edit->Preferences-Folders->Plugins.  I place the JW Lua plug-in (and its two auxiliary files) in that folder.  I create a new folder somewhere called "JW Lua scripts" and place my DoubleStaffMMR.lua file and any other JW Lua scripts in that directory.

At first you must run the JW Lua plugin and click on the "Manager" tab.  In the top pane called "Plug-in Groups" there is a default plug-in group called [Menu].  Select it.  Then in the bottom pane called "Items in Group", click on "New" to add a new item.  Navigate to where you saved my script file and double click it.  This will add an item, my script, to the menu, so that it will now show in the "JW Plug-ins" sub-directory in the "Plug-ins" menu dropdown.  Choose my script to start it.

After you have set up the menu item, you do not have to actually run the JW Lua plug-in to start any JW Lua script you have added to the menu, just choose it from the menu.

You can also select the "Development" tab in the JW Lua plug-in interface, and click the "open" button along the top.  Navigate to where you stored my script file and double click it to open the source code in the editor window.  Feel free to examine the code if you feel so inclined.  It is not secret nor proprietary in any way.  You may discover how JW Lua works under the hood.  JW Lua is not difficult, but there is a steep learning curve.  Although Lua is not object oriented in and of itself, it can be made to look like it is.  This is what Jari has done to provide the hooks into the PDK for JW Lua scripters.  To run the script click on the "Run script" button.  There is a pane at the bottom where any print commands in JW Lua will be displayed along with other messages.  My script does not print anything, but rather displays a dialog at the end with a count of processed MMRs.

Hope this helps.  I'm not sure what advice you got from John in the PM.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU with 6 dual core processors @ 3.50 GHz (12 threads)

32 GB RAM

Realtek High Definition on board audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU with 4GB ram

512 GB SSD system disk

Four 4TB and one 1TB internal SATA HD's
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014d.v5030

GPO4.02

Cakewalk SONAR X3

Zuill,

I think that can be done.  I'll include it in the next revision.  Thanks for the feedback.

Post Edited (Motet) : 10/29/2015 6:07:02 PM (GMT-5)

Michael,

No it does not have to be an extracted part.

No it is not for Macs only.  In fact I wrote the script on a Windows platform.

It should work in the harp part, if you have it selected for edit.

The reason I wrote it to require a two stave and only two stave score/part is because a MMR is applied to all the staves in the score/part.  If there are notes in any of the measures of the staves selected for MMR creation, it will prevent the creation of the MMR for those measures.  Besides the OP, John, asked for a double staff MMR.  If the score has more than two staves, e.g. a harp, piano, and string ensemble, you must select the harp or piano part that has two staves before the script will process any MMRs in that part.  For example, if the harp part has rests in measures 1,2 but the piano has notes, then in the score you cannot create a MMR for measures 1,2.  In the harp part, you can.

I may have to revise my thinking on the score/part to allow a selected MMR to be processed even if there are more staves that are not included in the selection.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU with 6 dual core processors @ 3.50 GHz (12 threads)

32 GB RAM

Realtek High Definition on board audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU with 4GB ram

512 GB SSD system disk

Four 4TB and one 1TB internal SATA HD's
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014d.v5030

GPO4.02

Cakewalk SONAR X3

Post Edited (Charles Lawrence) : 10/29/2015 11:08:42 PM (GMT-5)

Post Edited (Michel R. E.) : 10/29/2015 11:28:32 PM (GMT-5)

Michael,

Could you post or email me the mus(x) file causing the problem?  It sounds like you have a much more complicated document than I ever tested with.  It seems to be finding some unforeseen logic errors.  Maybe I can pin the problem down.  Your document is safe with me.

Hidden staves and staves with styles are certainly conditions I did not consider.   As I suspected would happen, this project is ballooning far beyond my original, and apparently simplistic first approach.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU with 6 dual core processors @ 3.50 GHz (12 threads)

32 GB RAM

Realtek High Definition on board audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU with 4GB ram

512 GB SSD system disk

Four 4TB and one 1TB internal SATA HD's
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014d.v5030

GPO4.02

Cakewalk SONAR X3

Post Edited (Charles Lawrence) : 10/30/2015 10:38:30 AM (GMT-5)

Post Edited (Motet) : 10/31/2015 12:30:11 PM (GMT-5)

Michel,

I'm not sure what you mean, but the latest JW Lua version available at this time is Beta 0.42 for Windows and Beta 0.41 for Mac.

Thanks John.

I have put a lot of time and effort into this.  You inspired me to set out on this venture.  Like Michel said, somebody will no doubt come up with a situation that breaks it, or that I have not considered in the design.

A couple of things that might need mentioning for those who have not followed the thread.

The script will accommodate any re-sizing of the white space between the staves, as well as changing the line spacing of either/both staves, all within reason, of course.   You can also re-order the staves.  These operations should be done before running the script.  Since the number is now an expression, any changes done after running the script, may require that the expression be manually repositioned.  The font used for the number is always Maestro/24/plain and therefore may not be appropriate if the spacing of the page is small, like on a large full orchestra score.  It's on my to do list to see if something can be done in this case.  Also, if the MMR is set to display a range, it might collide.  No provision has been made to avoid collisions of the number expression with any other objects in the whitespace.  These adjustments will need to be done manually. 

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5930K CPU with 6 dual core processors @ 3.50 GHz (12 threads)

32 GB RAM

Realtek High Definition on board audio
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPU with 4GB ram

512 GB SSD system disk

Four 4TB and one 1TB internal SATA HD's
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
Finale versions: 2011b.r2, 2012c.r13, 2014d.v5030

GPO4.02

Cakewalk SONAR X3

Robert,

The script is not proprietary, so feel free to modify it for improvements you may have in mind.  Just include comments in the Plug-in Definition area and elsewhere in the body of the script to document what you do and give yourself credit.  I used ideas from several forum members when developing the script in the first place.

Good luck.  JW Lua is not easy and has a steep learning curve.