During the excavation of Changlingguan tunnel on Hefei～Wuhan passengerdedicated railway, prismfree laser distancemeasuring total stations, instead of sophisticated profilers, are used to set out the profile of the tunnel. In the paper, the settingout of the tunnel profile by means of prismfree laser distancemeasuring total stations is presented in terms of indoor preparation, excavation face settingout and profile data acquisition and processing. By means of this method, satisfactory economic results and high surveying accuracy are achieved. The paper can provide reference for the enlarging of the application scopes of similar instruments in the future.