Robert A. Somppi explains how to circumvent a specific dimensioning issue in AutoCAD’s paper space.

"A lot of people who would like to do annotation in paper space (and even some who already do) think that there is a major stumbling block to that method of annotating your drawings: 'What if the view in the viewport needs to be panned? Then all my stuff is out of whack.'

"There is an easy way of doing this without making the viewport active. Assuming you are not changing the scale, you can do it without panning within the viewport. Stretch the viewport using your preferred method to get the desired view, then move the viewport and the annotations at the same time to the desired place on the sheet."

Notes from Cadalyst tip reviewer Brian Benton: Ever since paper space came out in AutoCAD r11 (circa 1990), there has been a debate over where to put your annotations (dimensions, text, etc.). AutoCAD 2008 introduced annotated text and dimensions, which really eliminated one argument for dimensioning in paper space in that your text in model space has to be sized correctly. This created a text and layer management nightmare. A major, and valid, argument against dimensions in paper space is that the viewport may change location, size, or scale, which would normally break your paper space dimensions.

This tip suggests, and I agree, that if you need to reposition your viewport use the Move command. Just make sure to include any paper space dimensions with it when you move the viewport. Also keep in mind that if the setting dimassoc is set to 2 and you snapped your dimensions to the model space objects, then your dimensions are tied to those object points, causing the dimension to move or adjust with the object.