Your solution (it's actually a work around, not a solution) involves reducing the font width, then using that reduced width in a Text Style. That will work for your current dimensions but may not work for other dimensions or when dimensioning other objects in other drawings. For example, a narrower text style displaying '1' may work fine. What happens if your design changes and the new dimesion is now '0.98'? Would your narrow text style still be able to accomodate the increased number of characters? Or if the design is modified from 1'-0" to 1'-1/16" requiring you to replace 0 with 1/16?
Is your dimstyle annotative? Do you plot from modelspace or from a viewport on layout tab? Changing the VP scale such as when zooming out, will cause your dim fonts to get larger due to annotative scaling. Thus, your narrow font may no longer 'fit' if zooming out is ever needed.
Dimensioning doesn't have to be pretty with numbers neatly displayed inside extension lines. It must, without exception, be accurate.
Chicagolooper
