Minimum area enclosing rectangle

Compute the minimum area enclosing rectangle of a point cloud in the plane.

Access methods

8 Toolbar: MinRectangle_32x32 

8 Menu: ComputationalCAD † Min. enclosing rectangle

7 Command entry: CC:HULL:MINAREA

Dialog

Select points:
Select the points for which to compute the minimum area enclosing rectangle.

Specify projection direction [X/Y/Z/Ucs/2Points]:
Select the projection direction.
<X>:             The rectangle is computed in the global YZ-plane
<Y>:              The rectangle is computed in the global XZ-plane.
<Z>:             The rectangle is computed in the global XY-plane. (default)
<Ucs>:          The rectangle is computed in the UCS XY-plane.
<2Points>:     The rectangle is computed in a user defined plane perpendicular to the projection direction. The following dialog occurs:

           Specify first point
                     Select the first point of the normal vector defining the plane.
           Specify second point
                     Select the second point of the normal vector defining the plane.

Notes

The 2d minimum area enclosing rectangle is the rectangle that encloses all points with minimum area. If the points are 3d points, the 2d minimum area enclosing rectangle is computed for the projection of these points onto the specified projection plane. Note that the minimum area enclosing rectangle is not necessarily identical with the minimum perimeter enclosing rectangle.

hint   Use Generate points on primitives and Generate points on solids to generate input data.

bounding_rectangles

Figure 41: 2d convex hull (green), minimum area enclosing rectangle (red) and minimum perimeter enclosing rectangle (blue)

Example

minarea

Figure 42: Minimum area enclosing rectangle of 24 points

Command line prompt:

Minimum perimeter enclosing rectangle properties:

Width           : 682.4514

Height          : 623.1447

Area            : 425265.9925

Perimeter length: 2611.1923