Dimension Tool - Adjusting Manual Dimensions

[LDesign-X]

Hi. We're trying the Dimension Tool for some EGD architectural type drawings we're doing. In the past, some of the team (not me) have used CADTools by Hot Door for these types of things. But trying the new Dimension Tool to see if it can suffice. My exeperience so far is that it is VERY clunky.

A lot of our dimensions are needing to be drawn manually, as they don't necessarily coincide with a specific path or object in Illustrator (e.g., measuring part of the distance down a wall). As we've taken measurements in the field, we do need these to be a specific value as well. So I've been having to try to meticulously watch the dimension as I drag out a measurement, hoping I nail it. The document scale is 1:1, if that matters.

- But with manual dimensions, is there ANY adjustments you can make to them after you've drawn them out (beyond the general styling that is in the Properties panel)? 

Many times I've needed to nudge the beginning of the extension lines up or down a bit to align better, or to adjust the overall length of the measurement if I didn't get it perfect when dragging out. It seems that as soon as I do ANY sort of adjustment to the measurement, even try to nudge it up or down a few pixels, it expands the whole thing so it's no longer a 'live editable' measurement. For the sake of easier global adjusting of all measurments, I'd prefer to keep them as all live editable if possible. And yes, I've been trying to ensure I'm using the Dimension Tool to try these adjustments and not the pointer tool.

Any advice on working with manual measurements better would be GREATLY appreciated!

[barbara_a]

I may be misunderstanding your question, but I am able to move dimensions drawn with the Dimention tool by selecting them with the black Selection tool, and can edit parts of the dimension by selecting those parts with the Direct Selection tool and moving them. None of these edits changes the numberic value in the dimension.

[LDesign-X]

Right, but as soon as you move or otherwise modify as you're suggesting (using selection tools), those dimensions are expanded and are now just a group of regular objects (e.g., paths, type box, etc.), correct? So if you look in the 'Dimensions' layer, are those dimensions now a group instead of just a single dimension object?

I was hoping to keep dimensions as single live editable objects, so, for instance, I could possibly make a styling change to one and then hit the 'Apply to All' button to update all dimensions together. But I'm learning, at least with manually drawn dimensions, that I might have to just use the Dimension Tool to get the basic measurment objects on the page, then expand and adjust the individual objects as if they were plain Illustrator objects (i.e., old-school, like before there was a Dimension Tool).

Guess I was just trying to see if I was missing anything with how the DImension Tool could be used, while remaining a true live editable dimension object. It would seem obvious that being able to at least adjust the length while having the measurement value update, or being able to adjust the starting point of the extension lines, should be doable.