A three-dimensional (3D) coordinate measuring system is provided. The system includes an aerial measuring device that has an aerial drone and a 3D measurement device. The 3D measurement device being rotatably attached to the aerial drone, the aerial drone is movable from a first position to a stationary second position. The 3D measurement device being configured to optically measure points on the surface of an object. The system further includes one or more processors configured to execute nontransitory computer readable instructions. The computer readable instructions comprise: moving the aerial measuring device from the first position; landing the aerial measuring device at the second position; rotating the 3D measurement device to optically measure a first object point; and determining a first 3D coordinates of the first object point with the 3D measuring device.