Ask anyone who builds things, from the amateur carpenter to the professional architect — measuring curved surfaces can be a real problem. Conventional rulers are absolutely useless, and aluminum tape measures aren’t much better. Composed of fabric and other highly pliable materials, tailors tapes can hug curves and circles to achieve accurate measurements, but this tool isn’t exactly the most handy and portable.
Marketed under the brand name Rollbe, there’s a new Kickstarter product that can not only measure along a curve but store neatly in even the smallest of pockets. Better yet, there’s no mechanical retraction system to fail, because the Rollbe doesn’t need to extend for use.
Rather than spanning the entire length of the object being measured, the Rollbe features a unique circular design that allows you to simply roll from beginning point to end point along any line, or curve, that you want to measure. And its available in both Metric and Imperial units.
To use, simply place the bullet mark to designate the starting point of the surface that you want to measure. As you roll along that surface, count the number of full rotations following the ”radius indicator.’’ Because the Rollbe comes in two convenient sizes, these rotations will either be 4 inches/10 centimeters or 8 inches/20 centimeters. By multiplying accordingly and then adding the remaining units, there’s no limit to the lengths that you can measure!