Method for operating a coordinate-measuring apparatus, wherein provision is made for a reception device for receiving at least one interchangeable component of the coordinate-measuring apparatus, wherein the component is a measuring sensor or a measuring sensor component (5, 13), and the method comprises: - detecting an at least predominant part of the reception device by way of an optical monitoring sensor that is different from a measuring sensor, used for a workpiece measurement, of the coordinate-measuring apparatus, wherein at least one dataset is generated on the basis of the detection; wherein the method is characterized by: - ascertaining a type of the reception device as a predetermined property of the reception device on the basis of ascertaining predetermined geometric features in the dataset, wherein the features are contours of the reception device and the property is ascertained by checking whether the contours correspond to entries in a database; - ascertaining a position and/or orientation of the reception device as a further property on the basis of the ascertained type of the reception device; - carrying out a component exchange process taking into consideration the ascertained position and/or orientation. wherein provision is made for a reception device for receiving at least one interchangeable component of the coordinate-measuring apparatus, wherein the component is a measuring sensor or a measuring sensor component (5, 13), and the method comprises: - detecting an at least predominant part of the reception device by way of an optical monitoring sensor that is different from a measuring sensor, used for a workpiece measurement, of the coordinate-measuring apparatus, wherein at least one dataset is generated on the basis of the detection; - detecting an at least predominant part of the reception device by way of an optical monitoring sensor that is different from a measuring sensor, used for a workpiece measurement, of the coordinate-measuring apparatus, wherein at least one dataset is generated on the basis of the detection; wherein the method is characterized by: - ascertaining a type of the reception device as a predetermined property of the reception device on the basis of ascertaining predetermined geometric features in the dataset, wherein the features are contours of the reception device and the property is ascertained by checking whether the contours correspond to entries in a database; - ascertaining a position and/or orientation of the reception device as a further property on the basis of the ascertained type of the reception device; - carrying out a component exchange process taking into consideration the ascertained position and/or orientation. - ascertaining a type of the reception device as a predetermined property of the reception device on the basis of ascertaining predetermined geometric features in the dataset, wherein the features are contours of the reception device and the property is ascertained by checking whether the contours correspond to entries in a database; - ascertaining a position and/or orientation of the reception device as a further property on the basis of the ascertained type of the reception device; - carrying out a component exchange process taking into consideration the ascertained position and/or orientation.