Patent ID: 7644507

Claim:
A method for scanning a work piece surface with an aid of a coordinate measuring machine, which comprises the steps of: bringing a probe element of the coordinate measuring machine into contact with the work piece surface, and moving the probe element along the work piece surface while contact is maintained; providing the coordinate measuring machine with a plurality of mutually independent degrees of freedom of possible movements of the probe element with reference to a work piece, and defining for the degrees of freedom maximum speed magnitudes that describe a maximum of a movement speed component of the probe element referred to as a respective degree of freedom; prescribing for a planned scanning of the work piece an estimated scanning path on which the probe element is to move during scanning, and in which an actual scanning path can differ from the estimated scanning path in dependence on actual measurements of the work piece; and determining a maximum magnitude of a scanning speed at which the estimated scanning path can be traversed at a constant magnitude of a speed of the probe element by taking account of the maximum speed magnitudes for the degrees of freedom.