Provided are systems 10 and methods 100 for determining both the location and angular orientation of holes 12 with openings 14 on a surface 16 of an article 18 that are at least partially obstructed. In a method of the present invention, a scanning system 10 that includes a laser spot projector 40, a laser spot sensor 42, a memory device 48 and a processor 50 is provided. A laser beam 44 is projected onto the surface 16 of the article 18 in a region 24 containing at least one hole 12 and the spot sensor receives light reflections 46. A series of points 52 representing the scanned region is stored as a point cloud 54 in the memory device 48. The point cloud 54 is then manipulated to calculate the location and angular orientation of each hole in the region in relation to one or more pre-existing, article datums 22.