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From: sow@cad.luth.se (Sven-Ove Westberg)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Distance from a point to a polygon in 3-space
Message-ID: <1785@eru.mt.luth.se>
Date: 12 Apr 91 19:01:48 GMT
References: <1991Apr12.000218.3215@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Lulea, Sweden
Lines: 13

In article <1991Apr12.000218.3215@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> corkum@csri.toronto.edu (Brent Thomas Corkum) writes:
|I'm looking for a reference, algorithm or C code snipit that calculates
|the EXACT distance from a 3D point to 3D CONVEX polygon (always a triangle or
|quadralateral).  In the end though, I need to calculate the distance from

You can not calulate the EXACT distance to a quadralateral if it is not
planar. On non planar quadralateral the distance depends on how you
define the surface. One common way do do it is to divide each quadralateral
in two triangels. You can divide the quadralateral in two ways and
get different results.

Sven-Ove Westberg, CAD, University of Lulea, S-951 87 Lulea, Sweden.
Internet: sow@cad.luth.se