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How to know if a point is in-between 2 3D parallel planes ?

Florent B
Posted 5 years ago

Hello,

I want to find the easiest way to extract from my list of coordinates points (a pack of nodes of my lattice), those who are located inbetween 2 parallel infinite 3D planes.

I used a cylinder as a thin volume with very a big radius to represent my 2 planes and used Select to extract the points contained inside but I think there is a better and more simple way to do that using maybe the 2 planes equations...

Thanks a lot !

EDIT 1 :

Using the suggestion of Ta'a Nwa Dombou

The variable "bonsnoeuds" contains a list of vectors.

valeur = Abs[
   a (x0up - x0down) + b (y0up - y0down) + c (z0up - z0down)];
bonsnoeuds = 
  Select[bonsnoeuds, 
   Abs[a (#[[1]] - x0up) + b (#[[2]] - y0up) + c (#[[3]] - z0up)] + 
      Abs[a (#[[1]] - x0down) + b (#[[2]] - y0down) + 
        c (#[[3]] - z0down)] == valeur &];

This way is cheaper in time process than using the cylinder method. Also I noticed it is most efficient to use Select 2 times for 2 different conditions rather that overloading Select with multiple condition.
POSTED BY: Florent B
6 Replies
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I am glad to know that my suggestion solved your problem. It includes points on the planes. However, you can exclude these points easily: A point is between the two planes if it belongs to neither of the planes and satisfies the the provided equation: $$ a(x-x_1)+ b(y-y_1)+c(z-z_1) \ne 0 \mbox{ and } a(x-x_2)+ b(y-y_2)+c(z-z_2) \ne 0 \mbox{ and } |a(x-x_1)+ b(y-y_1)+c(z-z_1)| + |a(x-x_2)+ b(y-y_2)+c(z-z_2)| =|a(x_1-x_2)+ b(y_1-y_2)+c(z_1-z_2)|. $$ Translating the above expression into Mathematica code is straightforward.
POSTED BY: Ta'a Nwa Dombou
Florent B
Florent B
Posted 5 years ago

Is this method valid in 3D for all kind of planes ?
POSTED BY: Florent B
Florent B
Florent B
Posted 5 years ago

Thank you so much. It looks it is working well. Question : does this way includes points that are on the planes or only inbetween ?
POSTED BY: Florent B

Suppose that the Cartesian equations of your two parallel planes are $$ P_1 : a(x-x_1) + b(y-y_1) + c(z-z_1) = 0, \quad P_2: a(x-x_2)+b(y-y_2) +c(z-z_2) = 0.$$ By using the well-known formula for the distance from a point to a plane , we see that a point (x,y,z) lies between the two planes if and only if $$ |a(x-x_1) + b(y-y_1) + c(z-z_1)| + |a(x-x_2)+b(y-y_2) +c(z-z_2)| \\= |a(x_1-x_2)+b(y_1-y_2) +c(z_1-z_2)| .$$
POSTED BY: Ta'a Nwa Dombou
POSTED BY: EDITORIAL BOARD

If you represent your parallel planes with equations of the form f[x]=c1 and f[x]=c2 (with the same linear f), a point x lies between the planes exactly when f[x] lies in between the two constants c1,c2.
POSTED BY: Gianluca Gorni
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