Hello.
Does anyone know a way to adjust the size of the background fill box when dimensioning? The fill background always seems too long and overlaps the adjacent dimension. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Drew
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I run into the same issue frequently. Currently the only option is to explode the dimension. Then you can resize the text box to some degree. For me there’s often still too much padding but it is better.
Dave
I never thought about exploding it. I really don’t like to do that, but you’re right, it works. Hopefully they can improve this and make the text box tighter. Thanks for the response.
I don’t like to do it either and I hope they manage some sort of improvements. As I understand it, the challenge is that the amount of padding around the text is dependent on the font size and the space around the glyphs provided by the font itself It seems like that padding isn’t directly proportional to the size of the font, either.
Keep your fingers crossed for LO2016. 
Still having the same problem now in '17 hahaha!
Have you all found a solution other than exploding?
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The padding hasn’t changed much with LO2017. The problem is, different font glyphs use the space differently so for some the padding looks normal while for others, it’s enormous. And the font size affects the appearance of the padding. I know they are working on handling it better so we just need to be patient.
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I spent about a week working on this last cycle, and was even rash enough to promise Dave that I’d get it done… then I had a bunch of problems getting it done right on Windows and ran out of time. It’s still on my personal top-ten list.
-m
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Oh god. I have been trying to figure this out for years. I, too, after having worked on this frustrating situation way too long, found like you guys, the only solution is to blow up the dimension, which does nothing to improve the situation, except to make one dimension look acceptable. The distance of the dimension number from the dimension line is huge and can be very confusing to read, often. Plus it looks lame and unlovely. THANKS for the font glyph info, so very appreciated! Now I’m off to change the font of my dimension numbers even though I’d prefer them to stay in Graphite Standard. If there’s the slightest chance of getting those numbers closer to the dim line even with a different font, I am all over it!
In my field of work, we are never to explode items… Still having this issues in LayOut 2018. Has anyone fine anything other than exploding the dimensions?
Dave
i haven’t taken much time to just peruse the community for tips and such. But, i was looking back at this dimensioning question, and wondered if we are still patiently waiting for changes in the dimension text background padding?
There might still be padding issues depending on the font, its size and the length of the dimension. Fortunately for short dimensions they can be placed outside the extension lines so it’s less of a problem.
earlier (5 years ago) you talked about using a different font… did you find anything you’re happy with?
I have a couple of fonts I use for a specific client because that’s what they want but otherwise I usually choose fonts based on the projects. Smaller dimensions where the padding might be an issue end up outside the extension lines automatically so I don’t struggle with it.
I was just experimenting with dimensions and different fonts. One thing I forgot to mention is that small dimension handling is improved since 5 years ago when I mentioned the different fonts. Now when the text box gets large enough the arrows shift outside the extension lines automatically. (This was something I used to have to do manually.)
This is 7 different fonts selected at random from my available fonts.
Generally those fonts with wider 0 glyphs will tend to force the dimension arrows to the outside earlier as the size increases. It’s not just the width of the 0 though. It’s the padding around each glyph, too. If you don’t want the arrows to go outside as often, it seems better to choose a font with narrower glyphs. Compare 16 pt. Verdana and Arial for example. And compare 16 pt. Verdana with 18 pt. Arial.
Of course there are the automatic leader options. ( Used to create those manually, too.) The text ends up on the side of the end of the dimension not the start but it can be moved.
The pad problem gets bigger, smaller the font is. It’s also more a problem when using the oblique instead of arrows.
I found a workaround with this problem which might not be ideal for some people. One of my client needs 11x17 paper format. I produce his pdf document on a 22x34. He can then print it on a 24x36 @ 100% scale or 11x17 @ 50% scale. My minimum font size rule is 6pt, so I’m not going less than 12pt on his 22x34. The pad is much better (smaller) on 12pt than 6pt.
If I write the scale underneath the drawing title, I have to write a scale half the actual size and be sure I write the paper size 11x17 in the titleblock. It can be brain twisting. This said, I don’t have to deal with this for that specific client because he doesn’t care about seeing which scale it is, so I simply don’t write them down.
It would be awesome if we could have some sort of setting to adjust the size of this forced fill (pad) without exploding anything.