How to determine if a list of polygon points are i

Question

Having a list of points, how do I find if they are in clockwise order?

For example:

point[0] = (5,0)
point[1] = (6,4)
point[2] = (4,5)
point[3] = (1,5)
point[4] = (1,0)

would say that it is anti-clockwise (or counter-clockwise, for some people).

Answer 1

If you use Matlab, the function ispolycw returns true if the polygon vertices are in clockwise order.

Answer 2

Solution for R to determine direction and reverse if clockwise (found it necessary for owin objects):

coords <- cbind(x = c(5,6,4,1,1),y = c(0,4,5,5,0))
a <- numeric()
for (i in 1:dim(coords)[1]){
  #print(i)
  q <- i + 1
  if (i == (dim(coords)[1])) q <- 1
  out <- ((coords[q,1]) - (coords[i,1])) * ((coords[q,2]) + (coords[i,2]))
  a[q] <- out
  rm(q,out)
} #end i loop

rm(i)

a <- sum(a) #-ve is anti-clockwise

b <- cbind(x = rev(coords[,1]), y = rev(coords[,2]))

if (a>0) coords <- b #reverses coords if polygon not traced in anti-clockwise direction

Answer 3

I think in order for some points to be given clockwise all edges need to be positive not only the sum of edges. If one edge is negative than at least 3 points are given counter-clockwise.

Answer 4

My C# / LINQ solution is based on the cross product advice of @charlesbretana is below. You can specify a reference normal for the winding. It should work as long as the curve is mostly in the plane defined by the up vector.

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Numerics;

namespace SolidworksAddinFramework.Geometry
{
    public static class PlanePolygon
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Assumes that polygon is closed, ie first and last points are the same
        /// </summary>
       public static bool Orientation
           (this IEnumerable<Vector3> polygon, Vector3 up)
        {
            var sum = polygon
                .Buffer(2, 1) // from Interactive Extensions Nuget Pkg
                .Where(b => b.Count == 2)
                .Aggregate
                  ( Vector3.Zero
                  , (p, b) => p + Vector3.Cross(b[0], b[1])
                                  /b[0].Length()/b[1].Length());

            return Vector3.Dot(up, sum) > 0;

        } 

    }
}

with a unit test

namespace SolidworksAddinFramework.Spec.Geometry
{
    public class PlanePolygonSpec
    {
        [Fact]
        public void OrientationShouldWork()
        {

            var points = Sequences.LinSpace(0, Math.PI*2, 100)
                .Select(t => new Vector3((float) Math.Cos(t), (float) Math.Sin(t), 0))
                .ToList();

            points.Orientation(Vector3.UnitZ).Should().BeTrue();
            points.Reverse();
            points.Orientation(Vector3.UnitZ).Should().BeFalse();



        } 
    }
}

Answer 5

Another solution for this;

const isClockwise = (vertices=[]) => {
    const len = vertices.length;
    const sum = vertices.map(({x, y}, index) => {
        let nextIndex = index + 1;
        if (nextIndex === len) nextIndex = 0;

        return {
            x1: x,
            x2: vertices[nextIndex].x,
            y1: x,
            y2: vertices[nextIndex].x
        }
    }).map(({ x1, x2, y1, y2}) => ((x2 - x1) * (y1 + y2))).reduce((a, b) => a + b);

    if (sum > -1) return true;
    if (sum < 0) return false;
}

Take all the vertices as an array like this;

const vertices = [{x: 5, y: 0}, {x: 6, y: 4}, {x: 4, y: 5}, {x: 1, y: 5}, {x: 1, y: 0}];
isClockwise(vertices);

Answer 6

I guess this is a pretty old question, but I'm going to throw out another solution anyway, because it's straightforward and not mathematically intensive - it just uses basic algebra. Calculate the signed area of the polygon. If it's negative the points are in clockwise order, if it's positive they are counterclockwise. (This is very similar to Beta's solution.)

Calculate the signed area: A = 1/2 * (x₁*y₂ - x₂*y₁ + x₂*y₃ - x₃*y₂ + ... + x_n*y₁ - x₁*y_n)

Or in pseudo-code:

signedArea = 0
for each point in points:
    x1 = point[0]
    y1 = point[1]
    if point is last point
        x2 = firstPoint[0]
        y2 = firstPoint[1]
    else
        x2 = nextPoint[0]
        y2 = nextPoint[1]
    end if

    signedArea += (x1 * y2 - x2 * y1)
end for
return signedArea / 2

Note that if you are only checking the ordering, you don't need to bother dividing by 2.

Sources: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PolygonArea.html