1. Non-contact method of inspecting a part having an axis, the method having enhanced versatility and comprising the steps of: supporting the part so that the part does not move along the axis of the part during inspection; scanning the supported part with a triangulation-based subsystem which generates a beam of electromagnetic energy to obtain a reflected beam of electromagnetic energy; sensing at least one portion of the reflected beam of electromagnetic energy to obtain at least one triangulation signal; processing the at least one triangulation signal to obtain triangulation-based, sensor data; scanning the supported part with a plane-based profile subsystem which generates at least one plane of radiation so that the part occludes the at least one plane of radiation to create corresponding unobstructed planar portions of the at least one plane of radiation wherein each of the obstructed planar portions contains an amount of radiation which is representative of respective geometric dimensions of the part; measuring the amount of radiation present in each of the unobstructed planar portions to obtain shadowed radiation plane signals; processing the shadowed radiation plane signals to obtain shadowed radiation plane-based sensor data; and processing the triangulation-based sensor data and the shadowed radiation plane-based sensor data to obtain dimensional information related to the part.