Not displaying length with stretch action in dynamic block

I use dynamic blocks a lot of the time and most of them have a stretch action in them. What used to happen would be that whenever I clicked on the block I wanted to adjust and then clicked on the stretch action, it would show the distance from the base point and I was able to type in the new length of the object I was stretching. But now whenever I click on the stretch action, it shows that the current length is 0 and it is asking for the distance from the current point, not the base point. How can I change it so that it is always just the distance from the base point?

can you post your block. I am finding it hard to visualise ATM.

I could but, it's happening with all of my blocks, not just one

Imagine I have a dynamic block for a 5' x 2' rectangle and on the top of the rectangle there is a stretch action starting at the top left and going to the top right. Whenever I go to stretch the block with the stretch action that is built into the block, my dynamic input displays 0' rather 5' (the current length of the stretch action) because it is asking me how far I want to stretch from the current point. I want to be able to just type in the length I want the rectangle to be like I used to be able to do. So basically I want to be able to type in 4' and have the length of the rectangle be 4' rather than stretching the rectangle to be 9' (or 1' depending on the direction of stretch) .

have you turned on (or off) dynamic input recently?

I have not. But I just did now to see if that would change anything but it didn't.

Mine only shows offset but I've never looked that closely. If I want it to be a particular length I type the new value in the properties palette.

Sorry I can't help any further.

look up the System Variables that start with DYN. There are a few, and one may help you out. I'm thinking DYNDIGRIP.

edit: Default is 31. I changed mine around and it did not change for Dynamic Blocks.