A system and method is presented for performing optical measurements,including a lightsource configured to emit a light beam, a first pattern generator defining afirst longitudinal axisand configured to project a first generated pattern, and a second patterngenerator defining asecond longitudinal axis and configured to project a second generated pattern.The first andsecond generated patterns have different angular divergency. The first patterngenerator is adiffractive circle pattern generator, whereas the second pattern generator isa diffractive crosspattern generator. Adjustment of the first and second generated patterns withrespect to eachother cause the system to serve as an optical ruler for performing the opticalmeasurements whenthe first and second generate patterns overlap or coincide with each other atcertain points.
