A laser light receiver is provided with an integral laser distance measurement (LDM) device for measuring the distance from a laser plane of a desired elevation to a desired physical target point to be measured on a jobsite. The laser receiver can be combined with a gravity reference device, so that the laser receiver does not necessarily have to be held plumb to a desired target point, when determining the relative elevation of the laser receiver between a rotating beam of laser light and the target point; it can also acquire multiple samples of positions and automatically take a vertical measurement and store that result for later readout. The laser receiver can be further combined with a GPS receiver, to acquire latitude and longitude data, and then in combination act as a three-dimensional transducer that is more accurate in the vertical direction than a GPS receiver alone is capable of.