Dimensioning question

First of all, you don't have to explode the dimension to move the text. Select it and drag the grip. Second, there are settings in the dimstyle to control where the arrows and text go, and how big they are, and you should look into this. If you are having A LOT of trouble dimensioning something, you probably have a 'drafting' problem and are trying to cram too much into you drawing. This is why there are details.

that moves the entire dimension - text and arrows.
"dimtedit" moves the text only, but away from the arrow, it is not possible to move it closer to the arrow, although there is enough room there for at least two digits.
I've tried everything in the Format Dim style dialog box. I thought there may be some "plugins" which will enable additional flexibility.
If you are It is not a big trouble, but the dwg looks neater with the text closer to the arrows.
Joe

I think I don't fully appreciate your situation. BUT, many versions ago, when Autocad did not "do" multiline text in leaders I wrote this snipit:
(defun C:LD (/ A B C D PT1 PT2 PT3 PT4 PTX oldlyr lyr) (graphscr) (setq oldlyr (getvar "clayer") A (getvar "DIMASZ") B (getvar "ORTHOMODE") C (getvar "OSMODE") D (getvar "DIMSCALE") ) (setvar "clayer" "text") (setvar "DIMASZ" (* (getvar "TEXTSIZE") 1.25)) ;set arrow head size (setvar "ORTHOMODE" 0) (setvar "OSMODE" 512) (setvar "DIMSCALE" 1) (setq PT1 (getpoint "\nEnter Start Point : ")) (setvar "OSMODE" 0) (setq PT2 (getpoint PT1 "\nEnter Point: ")) (setvar "ORTHOMODE" 1) (setq PT3 (getpoint PT2 "\nEnter End Point: ")) (setvar "ORTHOMODE" 0) (command "dim1" "lea" PT1 PT2 PT3 "" commandnil) (setq PTX (/ (getvar "DIMASZ") 2.0)) (setq PT4 (list ((if (> (car PT2) (car PT3)) - + ) (car PT3) PTX ) (cadr PT3) ) ) (prompt "\nEnter Text: ") (command "dtext" (if (> (car PT2) (car PT3)) "mr" "ml" ) PT4 "0" ) (setvar "DIMASZ" A) (setvar "ORTHOMODE" B) (setvar "OSMODE" C) (setvar "DIMSCALE" D) (setvar "clayer" oldlyr) (princ) ) ;end ld.lsp
my goodness, that is ugly code. use at your own risk only.
but it solved my problem. I know the variables for dimensions confuse the heck out of me, and I am convinced there are some things I simply can't do with autocad "out of the box". somewhere in that code, I had to set text location. so I know you can control the text location. I have used this routine for years. (it is virtually screaming to be rewritten)
so I think if it really bothers you, you can write a little lisp to simulate your dimension commands.....
I am terrible at checking in on the boards, but I will try to remember to check next week. if you want help writing the routine.
roy