Question

I’m currently working on a 3d bin packing problem to which I want to represent my results as an image.

I have the results stored as a list of packing objects as follows

public class LoadedPackage
{
     private PackingObject packingObject;
     private int xloc, yloc, zloc;
     private bool flipped = false;
}

public class PackingObject
{
     private int ID, checkerMaster, height, width, depth, number;
}

I want to use the xloc,yloc,zloc and dimensions to draw the packages 1 at a time to build up an image. Is there some sort of image library way of doing this or am I going to be forced to use an openGL solution which seems a little overkill to me for just a simple image.

I was thinking of maybe using a isometric method using 2d gdi lib

Answer 1

In the end I opted for an isometric approach and added a method to each package to convert itself from a 3d coordinates over to isometric. I hope the following code helps someone else with a similar predicament!

An Isometric cube has 6 points so I return an array of 6 points. In reality i use 3 sub methods to return the 3 isometric polygons for the GDI lib to process but for the sake of this answer I’ll just post the more general 6 point method.

    public PointF[] convertCoords()
    {
        float x;
        float y;
        PointF p;
        PointF[] pointFs = new PointF[7];
        int x1 = 0;
        int y1 = 0;
        int z1 = 0;

        double rads = Helpers.DegreeToRadian(30);

        //point 0 in iso
        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * xloc) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * yloc);
        y = ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * yloc) + zloc - ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * xloc);
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x,y);
        pointFs[0] = new PointF(p.X,p.Y);
        //point 1 in iso
        x1 = xloc + packingObject.Depth;
        y1 = yloc;
        z1 = zloc;

        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * x1) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * y1);
        y = ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * y1) + z1 - ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * x1);
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x, y);
        pointFs[1] = new PointF(p.X, p.Y);
        //point 2 in iso
        x1 = xloc + packingObject.Depth;
        y1 = yloc;
        z1 = zloc + packingObject.Height;

        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * x1) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * y1);
        y = (-((float)Math.Sin(rads) * x1)) + ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * y1) + z1;
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x, y);
        pointFs[2] = new PointF(p.X, p.Y);
        //point 3 in iso
        x1 = xloc;
        y1 = yloc;
        z1 = zloc + packingObject.Height;

        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * x1) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * y1);
        y = (-((float)Math.Sin(rads) * x1)) + ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * y1) + z1;
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x, y);
        pointFs[3] = new PointF(p.X, p.Y);
        //point 4 in iso
        x1 = xloc;
        y1 = yloc + packingObject.Width;
        z1 = zloc + packingObject.Height;

        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * x1) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * y1);
        y = (-((float)Math.Sin(rads) * x1)) + ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * y1) + z1;
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x, y);
        pointFs[4] = new PointF(p.X, p.Y);
        //point 5 in iso
        x1 = xloc + packingObject.Depth;
        y1 = yloc + packingObject.Width;
        z1 = zloc + packingObject.Height;

        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * x1) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * y1);
        y = (-((float)Math.Sin(rads) * x1)) + ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * y1) + z1;
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x, y);
        pointFs[5] = new PointF(p.X, p.Y);
        //point 6 in iso
        x1 = xloc + packingObject.Depth;
        y1 = yloc + packingObject.Width;
        z1 = zloc;

        x = ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * x1) + ((float)Math.Cos(rads) * y1);
        y = (-((float)Math.Sin(rads) * x1)) + ((float)Math.Sin(rads) * y1) + z1;
        y = (-y) + 250;

        p = new PointF(x, y);
        pointFs[6] = new PointF(p.X, p.Y);

        return pointFs;
    }