I have a following problem. A large rectangle contains smaller non-intersecting rectangles (The black rectangles in the picture below) and I need to find an algorithm to fill remaining free area with non-intersecting rectangles(red ones in the picture below). Speed is not an issue for the algorithm. Also if someone would have an example source code of the algorithm I would really appreciate that.
Edit. Small clarification I need to get the coordinates of the red rectangles not to draw them. I am also working with point data not images.
Like most bin-packing problems this one looks like an NP-hard problem to me. With 2 rectangles, there are 8! (= 40320) possible arrangements you need to consider. Three rectangles produces 12! possibilities, a cool 480 million.
You’ll need an heuristic to make this computable. Beyond favoring the outer edges of the rectangles closest to the bounding rectangle, I don’t see a good one. You’d need tighter requirements on the resulting rectangles you accept, the number of them isn’t going to help. Glad this is not my problem 🙂