1. A method comprising: operating a coordinate measuring machine to measure a physical object to generate coordinate measurement data from the physical object; operating a computer-implemented system to identify first and second distinct geometric features of the object using a CAD model containing nominal geometric information for an object that corresponds to the physical object; operating a processor to segment the coordinate measurement data into two or more data sets, a first data set of the two or more data sets being associated with the first distinct geometric feature of the object, a second data set of the two or more data sets being associated with the second distinct geometric feature of the object, the geometric features having been identified using the nominal geometric information from the CAD model; operating a processor to reduce the coordinate measurement data in the first data set of the two or more data sets to a first reduced data set in a first data reduction manner associated with the first geometric feature; and operating a processor to reduce the coordinate measurement data in the second data set of the two or more data sets to a second reduced data set in a second data reduction manner associated with the second geometric feature, the second data reduction manner being different from the first data reduction manner.