Let's cut to the chase. You want to be able to measure exactly where the edge of that Dome will go. ;P It's a 75m radius. Equal to 5 dashed lines drawn with the ingame map tools. From end tip to end tip of the 5 dashes is 75m. Also the grid squares are 500m on a side. To know if you are safe from an orbital just put a personal waypoint on the orbital itself. You can see if you are inside the 200m minimum range.
That too but many other things. Citadel shield radius is 2" with a ruler on the screen with the map zoomed in to the closest. But measuring points is good so you can know how far you are from an Orbital Uplink, another base, etc. This way you don't plant too close to another.
While I see many small uses for a measuring tool, I don’t see too much use for construction. If you want to place something with a particular range, you can place a waypoint on the object you want to have in your range, then walk to where you want to place your building and walk up to your waypoint until it shows the correct distance. You want a 75m range? Walk closer until it shows 75m.
Having a measuring tool and a circular expandable eclipse tool would be important to plan for construction. It's not like it's easy to move a base. You can get shot at, other people build there too, etc. so knowing where you want to build before you build is important. Being 50m off from being able to place an Orbital Uplink is bad.
