Snap point to line

Question

I have two GPS coordinates that connect together to make a line. I also have a GPS point that is nearby, but definitely not on the line. My question is: how to find the nearest point along the line to a given point?

Answer 1

Game Dev has an answer to this question , it is in C ++, but it is easy to port. Which CarlG is kindly done (I hope he does not mind the permutation)

public static Point2D nearestPointOnLine(double ax, double ay, double bx, double by, double px, double py,
        boolean clampToSegment, Point2D dest) {
    // Thanks StackOverflow!
    // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1459368/snap-point-to-a-line-java
    if (dest == null) {
        dest = new Point2D.Double();
    }

    double apx = px - ax;
    double apy = py - ay;
    double abx = bx - ax;
    double aby = by - ay;

    double ab2 = abx * abx + aby * aby;
    double ap_ab = apx * abx + apy * aby;
    double t = ap_ab / ab2;
    if (clampToSegment) {
        if (t < 0) {
            t = 0;
        } else if (t > 1) {
            t = 1;
        }
    }
    dest.setLocation(ax + abx * t, ay + aby * t);
    return dest;
}

Answer 2

Try the following:

ratio = (((x1-x0)^2+(y1-y0)^2)*((x2-x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2) - ((x2-x1)(y1-y0) - (x1-x0)(y2-y1))^2)^0.5
        -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            ((x2-x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2)

xc = x1 + (x2-x1)*ratio;
yc = y1 + (y2-y1)*ratio;

Where:
    x1,y1 = point#1 on the line
    x2,y2 = point#2 on the line
    x0,y0 = Another point near the line
    xc,yx = The nearest point of x0,y0 on the line
    ratio = is the ratio of distance of x1,y1 to xc,yc and distance of x1,y1 to x2,y2
    ^2    = square
    ^0.5  = square root

The formula is obtained after we find the distance from the point x0, y0 to the line (x1, y1 → x2, y3). See here

( , ), , , .

Answer 3

You can use JTS .

• Create a LineSegment (your line)
• Create a Coordinate (the point you want to snap to the line)
• Get point in line using closestPoint method

A very simple code example:

// create Line: P1(0,0) - P2(0,10)
LineSegment ls = new LineSegment(0, 0, 0, 10);
// create Point: P3(5,5)
Coordinate c = new Coordinate(5, 5);
// create snapped Point: P4(0,5)
Coordinate snappedPoint = ls.closestPoint(c);