Method and apparatus for additive manufacturing

A method for locating and scanning a three-dimensional (3D) object in 3D space during additive and subtractive manufacturing, comprising:

• scanning a first portion of the 3D object from a first position via a scanner on a mobile platform;
• determining whether additional portions of the 3D object require scanning;
• moving the scanner via the mobile platform to a second position based on said determination that additional portions of the 3D object require scanning;
• scanning additional portions of the 3D object based on the moved scanner;
• identifying a plurality of tooling spheres of the 3D space for at least one scanned portion of the 3D object, wherein each identified tooling sphere of the identified plurality of tooling spheres comprises a unique reference point from any other identified tooling sphere of the identified plurality of tooling spheres;
• and
• aligning each scanned portion of the 3D object to generate one or more machine coordinates of the 3D object based on said identified plurality of tooling spheres.