I have to be honest. One of the first things I do when I receive a drawing from someone is type DIMREASSOC on the command line to reset dimension text values. The reason for this is because I don’t like drawings that contain dimensions that are overridden with text values that don’t match the distance being dimensioned.

Warning!
Be aware that if a dimension is completely overridden with a text value, DIMREASSOC will erase that text and replace it with the default dimension measurement. A dimension that contains only text like this:

…will be reset to look something like this (depending on your current DIMSTYLE settings):

Notice that the overridden text is not highlighted. This is how you can tell if a dimension has been overridden with a dumb text value.

There may be times when you need to add text to the dimension to provide more information:

These kinds of dimensions will stay intact when you run DIMREASSOC.

Manual Dimension Reset
If you want to place the real dimension value manually, simply type <> in the dimension string and it will reset. For example, type this in the dimension string:

…and it will look something like this:

Of course if the dimensions are exploded… well, that’s another story. Darn lazy drafters!