Suppose that $R\subset S$ are regular local rings which are essentially of finite type over a field $k$ of characteristic zero. If $V$ is a valuation ring of the quotient field $K$ of $S$ which dominates $S$, then we show that there are sequences of monoidal transforms (blow ups of regular primes) $R\to R_1$ and $S\to S_1$ along $V$ such that $R_1\to S_1$ is a monomial mapping. It follows that a morphism of nonsingular varieties can be made to be a monomial mapping along a valuation, after blow ups of nonsingular subvarieties.

In this paper we study a notion of local volume for Cartier divisors on arbitrary blow-ups of normal complex algebraic varieties of dimension greater than one, with a distinguished point. We apply this to study an invariant for normal isolated singularities, generalizing a volume defined by J. Wahl for surfaces. We also compare this generalization to a different one arising in recent work of T. de Fernex, S. Boucksom, and C. Favre.