Hi Steve, I just use a line as the measuring tool like you describe.

Note that when you are drawing a line and picking the 2nd point, the length of the line is displayed in the "distance" field in the bottom command bar here:



So one way to have fewer steps is to look down there before finishing the line command and then push Escape to cancel out of it instead of selecting and deleting.

But if you would like a dedicated tool for that, there is a plug-in here that you can set up to do it as well:
http://moi3d.com/download/scripts/PetrsMoiPage/PetrsMoiPage.htm#MeasureDistance

At some point I want to add a batch of tools on an "Analyze" tab, then there would be a good place to put this.

- Michael