The invention provides a parallel multi-joint 3-D coordinate measuring machine, which is characterized in that a first horizontal rotary joint is arranged on a base of the measuring machine; a first rod piece with the horizontal rotation angle between 0 and 360 degrees is arranged on a rotatable component of the horizontal rotary joint; the other end of the first rod piece is provided with a second horizontal rotary joint; the second horizontal rotary joint takes a component fixedly connected with the first rod piece as a fixed piece; a second rod piece capable of rotating relatively on the horizontal plane is arranged on the fixed piece; the other end of the second rod piece is provided with a translational joint; the translational joint is a Z coordinate measurement system; and a measuring head which can move in the Z direction and is used for detecting measured points is arranged in the Z coordinate measurement system. The measuring machine has the advantages that the measuring machine has the precision between the prior CMM and a flexible joint arm-type CMM, and is low in manufacturing cost, convenient to operate and capable of applying to workshop on-line measurement.