Walk before you run

So lately I have been working with the calipers to get better at sizing objects.  I had seen in a tutorial about Makerbot designs and Sketchup to size up your model by 1000, then downsize it in Skeinforge by .001  I spent alot of time with this method, all to not much success.  My mind wanders when I design, and at times I forget to size it times 1000.  

So I went to a way that works for me.  Size it right in Google Sketchup to start.  Zooming in and navigation around a 3D model in Sketchup can be tricky when working with objects no larger then 100mm by 100mm, but it has allowed me to leap forward with some scaled design.

I issued myself a challenge.  Make a box to fit perfectly around an object natively in Google Sketchup.  I found the simplest item I could laying around.  It was a square bubble level.  I then used the calipers to take measurements, and translated this data into Sketchup.  I then worked in some wall thickness, and was able to produce a case that would perfectly fit the object.  No sizing needed in Skeinforge or ReplicatorG.  Just import it, center it, and run it.

This opens some new stuff for me now that I have gotten the hang of modeling proper size in Sketchup, rather then modeling based upon reference of other lines in the model itself.  The below picture doesn't look like much, but the case perfectly fits this bubble level.  

Now maybe I can put some sort of mount on it, and strap it to my HBP, and no longer will be the days of eyeballing my platform levelness.