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c#mathxnaeuler-angles

Find x,y,z rotation between two normal vectors


I have two squares in 3D space. I want to find the x,y,z angles between them. I started by finding the normal vectors for both of the squares and I am trying to figure out how to get the angle between them.

I am using XNA (C#) Vector3 objects.

I have calculated the normal vectors as follows:

        Vector3 normal1 = (Vector3.Cross(sq1.corners[0] - sq1.corners[1], sq1.corners[0] - sq1.corners[2]));
        Vector3 normal2 = (Vector3.Cross(sq2.corners[0] - sq2.corners[1], sq2.corners[0] - sq2.corners[2]));

I want to find the euler rotation that will get normal1 facing the same way as normal2


Solution

  • First, you can calculate the axis and amount of rotation (assuming an arbitrary axis):

    Vector3 axis = Vector3.Cross(normal1, normal2);
    axis.Normalize();
    double angle = Math.Acos(Vector3.Dot(normal1, normal2) / normal1.Length() / normal2.Length());
    

    If the normals are normalized, then the calculation of the angle reduces to

    double angle = Math.Acos(Vector3.Dot(normal1, normal2));
    

    Then you can transform this to euler angles with the function from here