Can anyone tell me how the distance setting works?
Its in the offensive playboook and I dont have a clue how it works.

In playbook under Global or per down it says specify field position. i guess i didnt explain the to well.
thats what i wanted to know about.

It's the yardage distance you want to set between your short, medium and long settings for each down and distance, that is on the left side. On the right side is the settings for field positions, meaning you can change your playbooks a bit depending on what part of the field you are located.

ok i got that. now to the right of that it says specify the field yardage for. then it asks your own and then their own. what is that for

for you to specify what long & short means

On the Offensive Playbook page, there are two different windows just below the slider controls.

The first window is entitled "Specify the Range Distances for [1st/2nd/3rd/4th] Down"
Like jhunterz and bagchucker stated, this is for you to specify the thresholds for which distances will constitute Short situations, Medium situations and Long situations. If you put Medium: 5 and Long: 8 then if the distance to achieve a first down is 1-4 it will use the playcalling that you specified in the "Short Situations" window. If the distance to achieve a first down is 5-7 it will use the playcalling that you specified in the "Medium Situations" window. And if the distance to achieve a first down is 8 or more, it will use the playcalling that you specified in the "Long Situations" window.

The second window is entitled "Specify the Field Position for [1st/2nd/3rd/4th] Down"
Here, you get to carve out the exceptions to your normal playcalling, based on field position. When you look at Long situations for example, you will see that you specify what you want to do in Long situations at three different field positions: "Inside Own", "Midfield" and "Inside Opp". "Midfield" would be your typical play calling in Long situations, but you can have different instructions for when you are backed up to your own goal line.

Let's say that you want 100% pass in Long situations, but you don't want to pass when you are at your own 1 yard line and risk getting sacked for a safety. So you set the "Inside Own" parameter to whatever distance from your own goal line you want to carve out as an exception to your normal playcalling. If you set that to 5, then anytime you are at your own 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 yard line (where a 5-yard sack would result in a safety) it would use the playcalling that you specified on the "Inside Own" line instead of the "Midfield" line.

Likewise, you can also specify different playcalling for when you are in the Red Zone. If you set "Inside Opp" to 20, then any time you are inside your opponent's 20 yard line (your Red Zone) then it will use the playcalling that you specified on the "Inside Opp" line instead of the "Midfield" line.

now that makes sense. thank you for all the help guys. good info.