From the motion sensor to the computer chip, in many products of daily life components are used whose functioning is based on smallest structures of the size of thousandths — or even millionths — of millimeters. These micro and nano structures must be manufactured and assembled with the highest precision so that in the end, the overall system will function smoothly. Scientists have now developed a metrological scanning probe microscope into a micro and nano coordinate measuring instrument. This now allows dimensional quantities with nanometer resolution also to be measured on three-dimensional objects in an extraordinarily large measurement range of 25 mm x 25 mm x 5 mm.