The system described herein determines a distance of a component of a particle beam device from an object to the particle beam device and sets a position of the component in the particle beam device. The component is moved from a first starting position of the component relatively in the direction of an object, which is located in a second starting position, until the component makes contact with the object. When the component makes contact with the object, an adjusting path covered by the component and/or the object during the movement is determined. The adjusting path runs along a straight line that joins a first point on the component in the first starting position to a second point on the object in the second starting position that is arranged closest to the first point on the component along this line. The adjusting path corresponds to the distance.