A central challenge for imaging complex systems, such as metal defect structures or whole animals, is that information about features spanning multiple length scales is required. Furthermore, a complete understanding of the underlying properties can often only be achieved by correlating information from multiple techniques. Here we present a number of recent developments combining coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) at X-ray wavelengths with complimentary imaging and spectroscopy methods in transmission and Bragg geometry for rapid and high throughput imaging that provides multi-variable, 3D information about complex systems..