Optical triangulation is used in the human visual system and surveying tacheometers to estimate distance. This method is now used in systems with solid state sensors which enable fast measurement of distance with sufficiently high accuracy for many applications. City University has built on past experience to develop the optical triangulation technique to gather data appertaining to cross sections or profiles of structures in the range 0.2 m to 20 m radius from the measurement axis. Results obtained using three prototypes are given.