Question

I have started working on a CAD type program and I am not quite sure how to define a grid to the scale of a CAD program which is massive. The grid would have to contain coordinate points up to 7 decimal places or more and for like 10,000 units on the x and y axes. Storing every point would be too much for a computer to handle. What methods are out there to define such massive coordinate grid?

Answer 1

Two options:

• Subdivide the coordinates into big and small units. For example, you can have a variable that stores things in “meters” and another in “millimeters”. This depends on what your CAD program is for. As an example, have a look at how the timeval structure solves the problem, but for time.
• Use a big integer library, so you can use a single variable to express all points.