In this study, a novel approach to the design rules and calibration methods of an optical non-contact scanning probe system is proposed and verified by experiments. The optical probe consists of a line laser diode and two CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) cameras and is placed on a machining center to measure the workpiece profiles. For the systematic calibration and profile measurement, a mapping function method is presented. This method provides a simple and accurate calculation to the relationship between the real space plane and its related image plane on CCD camera. A negative film with known regular grid is used to construct the mapping function and the space coordinate of an object can be obtained from its image in a CCD camera via the mapping function. The measured profile data are smoothed by the B-Spline blending function and can be transfer to a CAD/CAM package for industrial applications.