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convhulln

N-D convex hull

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Syntax

k = convhulln(P)
k = convhulln(P,opts)
[k,vol] = convhulln(___)

Description

k = convhulln(P) computes the N-D convex hull of the points in a matrix P.

example

k = convhulln(P,opts) also specifies the Qhull options used to compute the convex hull.

[k,vol] = convhulln(___) also returns the volume vol of the convex hull for either of the previous syntaxes.

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

Create a matrix of 3-D points and compute the convex hull and its volume.

P = rand(10,3);
[k,vol] = convhulln(P);

Plot the convex hull.

trisurf(k,P(:,1),P(:,2),P(:,3),'FaceColor','cyan')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type patch.

Display the volume of the convex hull.

vol
vol = 
0.1857

Input Arguments

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Points, specified as a matrix whose columns contain the coordinates for the corresponding dimension. For example, to define a set of 2-D points, place the x-coordinates in the first column of P and the corresponding y-coordinates in the second column.

Qhull options, specified as a cell array of character vectors indicating which Qhull algorithms to use. For a list of options, see Qhull control options.

By default, opts is set to {'Qt'} for 2-, 3-, and 4-dimensional input. For 5-dimensional input and higher, opts is set to {'Qt','Qx'}.

Output Arguments

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Indices, returned as a matrix.

  • For 2-D points, k is a two-column matrix where each row represents an edge of the convex hull. The values represent the row indices of the input points.

  • For 3-D points, k is a three-column matrix where each row represents a facet of a triangulation that makes up the convex hull. The values represent the row indices of the input points.

  • For N-D points, k is an N-column matrix. The values represent the row indices of the input points.

Volume of the convex hull (area for two dimensions), returned as a scalar.

Tips

Algorithms

convhulln is based on Qhull [1]. For information, see http://www.qhull.org/. For copyright information, see http://www.qhull.org/COPYING.txt.

References

[1] Barber, C.B., D.P. Dobkin, and H.T. Huhdanpaa. “The Quickhull Algorithm for Convex Hulls.” ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, Vol. 22, No. 4, Dec. 1996, p 469–483.

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

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