  Since many years ago, multilateration has been used in precision engineering
notably in machine tool and coordinate measuring machine calibration. This
technique needs, first, the use of laser trackers or tracking interferometers,
and second, the use of nonlinear optimization algorithms to determine point
coordinates. Research works have shown the influence of the experimental
configuration on measure precision in multilateration. However, the impact of
floating-point precision in computations on large-scale multilateration
precision has not been addressed. In this work, the effects of numerical errors
(rounding and cancellation effects) due to floating-point precision (number of
digits) were studied. In order to evaluate these effects in large-scale
multilateration, a multilateration measurement system was simulated. This
protocol is illustrated with a case study where large distances ($\le$20 m)
between pairs of target points were simulated. The results show that the use of
multi-precision libraries is recommended to control the propagation of
uncertainties during the multilateration computation.
