Question

Help needed..

I have a organization layout which have rectangular shapes not in an ordered grid. If it was a grid, I would have used A- star code. So, How to connect two nodes (i.e. two rectangles) without interfering in between nodes(rectangles).

I just want the algorithm to find coordinates that will draw the path so that I can use that in generating SVG file.

Answer 1

Algorithm which I followed-

1. Store coordinates of edges of all Rectangles namely edge left,
   right, top, bottom as four datasets.
2. Follow the path from a point on RectangleA to a point on RectangleB.
3. Find the first edge that intersect with the path( Skew edges that are impossible to intersect the path are found based on calculations using coordinates and they are eliminated while finding intersecting edges).
4. After finding the first intersection, path from PointA to PointB is changed to PointA to Point of intersection and the path generated along the edge that intersect and from there to Point B.
5. Points 3 n 4 are repeated till path to PointB is complete without intersecting any edge.

I implemented this algorithm even though this is not giving an exact shortest path. This gives great output. I would like to share the java code if anyone requests since I find it difficult to explain how I implemented by above points.