This paper presents an atomic force probe for triggering coordinate measuring machines(CMMs). A rigorous comparison is made between touch trigger probe and atomic force probe for CMMs. Typical CMMs(touch trigger probe based CMMs) often lead to some errors associated with object curvature and difference in triggering sensitivity. Their applicability is limited only to hard objects. The aim of this work is to develop a trigger sensor for CMMs using atomic force. In order to show the applicability of atomic force as a trigger sensor, a cylindrical shape is measured with a CMM and an atomic force microscope. Three different touch probe heads with different ball sizes are tested. The experiments show that smaller ball provides better results for curved objects. The experimental results also show that the performance of atomic force as a trigger sensor is about that of the smallest ball probe. In addition, experiments are also performed to measure soft objects. Finally, this paper suggests and verifies a trigger sensor using atomic force for CMMs.