spacing staff...can it be done?

[Dirck Nagy]

Hi all

In the past, i have used a separate voice as a "spacing voice" to control measures per line, horizontal space, etc.

For example, if i wanted 4 measures in a line, i would write : "s1*4 \break. etc..." in the new voice.

However if i do this to a monophonic staff, the default stem direction changes to either "all up" or "all down", simply because there are now two "voices" present. 

My question:  is it possible to add another STAFF to the score, to use only to control horizontal spacing?  If so, how can it be hidden so it won't affect vertical space, show clefs & key signatures, etc? 

Or, am i missing something obvious regarding stem direction?

If it is too much trouble, i will continue to use a spacing voice, and just manually adjust stem direction, but it would be nice if there were an easy fix.

thanks so much!

dirck