Abstract General purpose CAD-based inspection of manufactured objects often involves comparing a model created using intensity or range images of the actual object to a tolerance reference model of the ideal object. Before this comparison is made, a sufficiently complete geometric model of the workpiece must be synthesized from sensor data. In this paper we present planning algorithms for finding a set of sensing operations for completely measuring the exposed surface of an object to be inspected. While these planning algorithms were developed as part of a particular inspection system, the algorithms are applicable to other inspection systems and other applications than inspection.