Plot a point in 3D space perpendicular to a line vector - math

Question

I'm attempting to calculate a point in 3D space which is orthogonal/perpendicular to a line vector.
So I have P1 and P2 which form the line. I’m then trying to find a point with a radius centred at P1, which is orthogonal to the line.
I'd like to do this using trigonometry, without any programming language specific functions.
At the moment I'm testing how accurate this function is by potting a circle around the line vector.
I also rotate the line vector in 3D space to see what happens to the plotted circle, this is where my results vary.
Some of the unwanted effects include:
The circle rotating and passing through the line vector.
The circle's radius appearing to reducing to zero before growing as the line vector changes direction.
I used this question to get me started, and have since made some adjustments to the code.
Any help with this would be much appreciated - I've spent 3 days drawing circles now. Here's my code so far
//Define points which form the line vector
dx = p2x - p1x;
dy = p2y - p1y;
dz = p2z - p1z;
// Normalize line vector
d = sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz);
// Line vector
v3x = dx/d;
v3y = dy/d;
v3z = dz/d;
// Angle and distance to plot point around line vector
angle = 123 * pi/180 //convert to radians
radius = 4;
// Begin calculating point
s = sqrt(v3x*v3x + v3y*v3y + v3z*v3z);
// Calculate v1.
// I have been playing with these variables (v1x, v1y, v1z) to try out different configurations.
v1x = s * v3x;
v1y = s * v3y;
v1z = s * -v3z;
// Calculate v2 as cross product of v3 and v1.
v2x = v3y*v1z - v3z*v1y;
v2y = v3z*v1x - v3x*v1z;
v2z = v3x*v1y - v3y*v1x;
// Point in space around the line vector
px = p1x + (radius * (v1x * cos(angle)) + (v2x * sin(angle)));
py = p1y + (radius * (v1y * cos(angle)) + (v2y * sin(angle)));
pz = p1z + (radius * (v1z * cos(angle)) + (v2z * sin(angle)));
EDIT
After wrestling with this for days while in lockdown, I've finally managed to get this working. I'd like to thank MBo and Futurologist for their invaluable input.
Although I wasn't able to get their examples working (more likely due to me being at fault), their answers pointed me in the right direction and to that eureka moment!
The key was in swapping the correct vectors.
So thank you to you both, you really helped me along with this. This is my final (working) code:
//Set some vars
angle = 123 * pi/180;
radius = 4;
//P1 & P2 represent vectors that form the line.
dx = p2x - p1x;
dy = p2y - p1y;
dz = p2z - p1z;
d = sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz)
//Normalized vector
v3x = dx/d;
v3y = dy/d;
v3z = dz/d;
//Store vector elements in an array
p = [v3x, v3y, v3z];
//Store vector elements in second array, this time with absolute value
p_abs = [abs(v3x), abs(v3y), abs(v3z)];
//Find elements with MAX and MIN magnitudes
maxval = max(p_abs[0], p_abs[1], p_abs[2]);
minval = min(p_abs[0], p_abs[1], p_abs[2]);
//Initialise 3 variables to store which array indexes contain the (max, medium, min) vector magnitudes.
maxindex = 0;
medindex = 0;
minindex = 0;
//Loop through p_abs array to find which magnitudes are equal to maxval & minval. Store their indexes for use later.
for(i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
if (p_abs[i] == maxval) maxindex = i;
else if (p_abs[i] == minval) minindex = i;
}
//Find the remaining index which has the medium magnitude
for(i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
if (i!=maxindex && i!=minindex) {
medindex = i;
break;
}
}
//Store the maximum magnitude for now.
storemax = (p[maxindex]);
//Swap the 2 indexes that contain the maximum & medium magnitudes, negating maximum. Set minimum magnitude to zero.
p[maxindex] = (p[medindex]);
p[medindex] = -storemax;
p[minindex] = 0;
//Calculate v1. Perpendicular to v3.
s = sqrt(v3x*v3x + v3z*v3z + v3y*v3y);
v1x = s * p[0];
v1y = s * p[1];
v1z = s * p[2];
//Calculate v2 as cross product of v3 and v1.
v2x = v3y*v1z - v3z*v1y;
v2y = v3z*v1x - v3x*v1z;
v2z = v3x*v1y - v3y*v1x;
//For each circle point.
circlepointx = p2x + radius * (v1x * cos(angle) + v2x * sin(angle))
circlepointy = p2y + radius * (v1y * cos(angle) + v2y * sin(angle))
circlepointz = p2z + radius * (v1z * cos(angle) + v2z * sin(angle))

Answer 1

Your question is too vague, but I may suppose what you really want.
You have line through two point p1 and p2. You want to build a circle of radius r centered at p1 and perpendicular to the line.
At first find direction vector of this line - you already know how - normalized vector v3.
Now you need arbitrary vector perpendicular to v3: find components of v3 with the largest magnitude and with the second magnitude. For example, abs(v3y) is the largest and abs(v3x) has the second magnitude. Exchange them, negate the largest, and make the third component zero:
p = (-v3y, v3x, 0)
This vector is normal to v3 (their dot product is zero)
Now normalize it
pp = p / length(p)
Now get binormal vector as cross product of v3 and pp (I has unit length, no need to normalize), it is perpendicular to both v3 and pp
b = v3 x pp
Now build needed circle
circlepoint(theta) = p1 + radius * pp * Cos(theta) + radius * b * Sin(theta)
Aslo note that angle in radians is
angle = degrees * pi / 180

Answer 2

#Input:
# Pair of points which determine line L:
P1 = [x_P1, y_P1, z_P1]
P2 = [x_P1, y_P1, z_P1]
# Radius:
Radius = R
# unit vector aligned with the line passing through the points P1 and P2:
V3 = P1 - P2
V3 = V3 / norm(V3)
# from the three basis vectors, e1 = [1,0,0], e2 = [0,1,0], e3 = [0,0,1]
# pick the one that is the most transverse to vector V3
# this means, look at the entries of V3 = [x_V3, y_V3, z_V3] and check which
# one has the smallest absolute value and record its index. Take the coordinate
# vector that has 1 at that selected index. In other words,
# if min( abs(x_V3), abs(y_V)) = abs(y_V3),
# then argmin( abs(x_V3), abs(y_V3), abs(z_V3)) = 2 and so take e = [0,1,0]:
e = [0,0,0]
i = argmin( abs(V3[1]), abs(V3[2]), abs(V3[3]) )
e[i] = 1
# a unit vector perpendicular to both e and V3:
V1 = cross(e, V3)
V1 = V1 / norm(V1)
# third unit vector perpendicular to both V3 and V1:
V2 = cross(V3, V1)
# an arbitrary point on the circle (i.e. equation of the circle with parameter s):
P = P1 + Radius*( np.cos(s)*V1 + np.sin(s)*V2 )
# E.g. say you want to find point P on the circle, 60 degrees relative to vector V1:
s = pi/3
P = P1 + Radius*( cos(s)*V1 + sin(s)*V2 )
Test example in Python:
import numpy as np
#Input:
# Pair of points which determine line L:
P1 = np.array([1, 1, 1])
P2 = np.array([3, 2, 3])
Radius = 3
V3 = P1 - P2
V3 = V3 / np.linalg.norm(V3)
e = np.array([0,0,0])
e[np.argmin(np.abs(V3))] = 1
V1 = np.cross(e, V3)
V1 = V1 / np.linalg.norm(V3)
V2 = np.cross(V3, V1)
# E.g., say you want to rotate point P along the circle, 60 degrees along rel to V1:
s = np.pi/3
P = P1 + Radius*( np.cos(s)*V1 + np.sin(s)*V2 )