Projections about manufacturing trends in the integrated circuit industry are made which indicate that by 2001 uncertainty requirements for dimensional metrology will be less than 1 nanometer. Brief arguments are presented that the new scanning probe microscopies offer many opportunities to meet this need because they have the potential of reducing the uncertainty of locating a feature on a testpiece and because they provide new access to the highly‐ordered atomic structure of crystal surfaces. Such access has much potential for giving greatly increased accuracy for generating reference lines and geometry against which motion of machine elements can be measured and characterized. The need for large‐area, atomically‐flat surfaces is discussed. Opportunities for applications to metrology of frequency, mass, density, and current are also indicated. Major issues discussed are stable tip performance, robust molecular‐scaled rulers, high‐aspect ratio nonostructures and the need to integrate accurate dimensional metrology into scanning probe microscopes.